The central office of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party remained locked
and confined by the police on Sunday after the police had stormed into
the office breaking open the door on
first floor, vandalised office equipments including computers and
arrested its joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on early
Saturday.
No BNP leader or activist was seen at the party office on Sunday except
the office staffs as they were avoiding the office fearing arrest.
The party assigned its joint secretary general Salahdddin Ahmed to act
as the party spokesperson in absence of Rizvi, but he was not seen at
the party office on the day. He said police were ‘harassing’ him.
Water cannon, riot car, prison van and huge members of police were seen deployed in front of the BNP office.
Police stormed into the BNP’s headquarters climing on the first floor by
a ladder and breaking open a door on the first floor at 3.45am on
Saturday and arrested Rizvi.
The police had later come out of the building breaking the locks of the
main gate with a hacksaw after the 40-minute drive, during which they
had ransacked the office, documents, computers and furniture of
different rooms including that of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting
secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, witnesses said.
At the main gate of the BNP office on Sunday morning, an on-duty plain
clothed sub-inspector, Moshiur Rahman, told New Age that they were
keeping sharp eyes on the office accordingly they were instructed.
He said that they were directed to arrest anyone who would appear at the BNP office gate excepting journalists.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner (Motijheel zone) Saifur
Rahman, however, claimed that the police were ‘just maintaining’
security around the area.
‘We have not sealed the office but no BNP leader came to enter the office’, he said.
The assistant commissioner defended the police’s breaking into the office saying that there was no other means to arrest Rizvi.
Rizvi was staying at the office since October 17. Most of the senior leaders of the party went into hiding after his arrest.
Salahdddin Ahmed, now the party’s spokesperson, told New Age from an
unknown place over phone on Sunday that he was not coming to the office
as the BNP leaders had decided to avoid arrest. (source)