Show of hired supporters

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The pro-Saifur faction of BNP could not break away from the tradition and hired hundreds of people to show off their strength as they sat with the Election Commission (EC) for the reforms dialogue yesterday.

Most of these “supporters”, who gathered on the road between the EC Secretariat and Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the presence of huge police force, were collected from different garment factories in Mirpur, Phulbaria and Sayedabad bus terminals, and Jatrabari kitchen market.

However, there is a ban on such gathering and the police had filed a case under the Emergency Power Rules against the BNP faction loyal to detained Chairperson Khaleda Zia for demonstrating at the same place on April 17.

Security was beefed up in and around the EC Secretariat yesterday for holding the stalled electoral reform dialogue with the BNP. The police set up a barricade near the main gate of EC Secretariat and did not allow anyone to enter the area.

Talking to reporters, many supporters alleged that local party leaders forced them to come to the gathering. A few said they were paid for this although they did not know the occasion of the gathering.

“I work at the Creative Sweater Factory and our GM [general manager] and PM [production manager] brought us here by a minibus,” a young boy told The Daily Star.

Fazlul Azim, owner of the factory, is a member of the pro-Saifur delegation at the EC dialogue.

Many of the BNP supporters said Demra unit BNP leader Nabiullah Nabi, Phulbaria Bus Terminal workers’ leader Belayet Hossain Babul and Sayedabad Bus Terminal workers’ leader Arif Hossain asked them to come to the gathering.

A few labourers in their uniforms of Jatrabari fish market were also seen in the crowd.

The showdown apparently was aimed at showing the strength of the Siafur-led faction of BNP, they said.

An expatriate labourer in Kuwait, who is now in the capital on leave, said a BNP leader from Sutrapur collected a group of young boys for the gathering.

When asked if they received any money from the organisers, he gave a smile, saying, “Who would come here without money?” He, however, could not tell the reason for holding the gathering.

A few minor boys wearing headbands of Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal, student and youth wings of the BNP, were also seen in the gathering.

Sohag, 12, who was wearing a headband of Jubo Dal, said none of them knew the reason why they gathered but came as the “bhai”–the local party leader–asked them to come. He said the leader gave them money.

The hired people along with a few mid-level party leaders greeted Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed when he came out of the EC Secretariat after the dialogue around 12:30pm. Hafiz also waved at the gathering.

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