Bangladesh News

Senior leaders of BNP are now avoiding their superiors, and are hesitant to keep in contact with the party chairperson’s office following the recent arrests of high profile political leaders on charges of corruption.
Sources said Tarique Rahman and his close aides, who enjoyed unlimited power in the last five years, have been staying away from Hawa Bhaban for at least the last six days, but Chairperson Khaleda Zia is regularly attending her office and encouraging other leaders to cope with the changed political atmosphere

“It is quite normal that political leaders would try to avoid arrest… I think there is nothing wrong with it,” a BNP leader told The Daily Star requesting anonymity.

According to party sources, following early Sunday’s crackdown on ‘corrupt’ politicians Khaleda asked all senior leaders of the party to attend a meeting with her on Sunday evening in her Banani office but surprisingly many senior leaders, who had been quite powerful during the last five years of four-party regime, did not

attend the meeting.

Sources said apart from Khaleda Zia and the party’s Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Khandaker Mahbub Uddin Ahmad and Shamsul Islam attended the meeting while the committee is made up of 13 members including the party chief.

A standing committee member, who had always been at the forefront in the last five years especially in the media, also stayed away from the meeting.

Many BNP activists believe that he is one of the key persons, who had created the volatile political situation during the last few days of four-party alliance government’s regime and during Iajuddin-led caretaker government’s tenure, ushering in the current predicament for the party, the sources said.

The absence of former finance minister Saifur Rahman and former chief whip Khandaker Delowar Hossain from the meeting raised many questions in the party, even the party chairperson expressed her resentment over the absence of the senior leaders, the sources said.

KM Obaidur Rahman, who was also absent from the meeting, is undergoing treatment.

Chowdhury Tanveer Ahmed Siddique, who was also absent, had earlier expressed his resentment several times against a certain corrupt quarter in the party.

Sources said Tarique Rahman, his close associates, and a few standing committee members are avoiding Hawa Bhaban, as they fear that the joint forces might arrest them from there on charges of corruption.

Some of the leaders are even worried about their party chief as there are rumours that the joint forces and other government agencies are keeping an eye on her activities, the sources added.