BNP expels Shawkat Mahmud for 'breach of party discipline'

BNP Vice Chairman Shawkat Mahmud has been expelled from the party for allegedly acting in breach of organisational discipline.

Mahmud has been stripped of all his posts in the BNP, including his primary membership, the party said in a statement on Tuesday.

On Mar 16, an event held under the banner of an organisation named the National Committee for Civil Rights in Dhaka's Banani made calls to form a new government through a mass uprising and replace the constitution with a new one.

Farhad Mazhar, the organisation's convenor, and Mahmud, its member secretary, addressed the event.

Mahmud described the party's decision to expel him as "unfortunate".

Mahmud, a journalist, had served as the president and general secretary of the National Press Club. He was also the president of the BNP-backed Federal Journalists Union.