Latest political news of Bangladesh

Protests Against 'eviction'

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was disappointed at city unit leaders' failure to offer resistance to the move to "evict" her from the disputed cantonment house on November 13.
The BNP chief was also irked at the thin presence of party's senior leaders in protest programmes during the November 14 hartal called to protest her "eviction" from the house, said a source in the party.
Khaleda was displeased as only a few hundred leaders and workers gathered at Jahangir gate at Dhaka Cantonment to protest the eviction.
The BNP chief had expected her party leaders to mobilise thousands of supporters in and around the cantonment, said the source.
She was particularly unhappy with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka, mayor of Dhaka City Corporation and his close aides, for failing to come up with a plan and mobilise supporters to help her keep the house.
Khaleda showed resentment against Khoka at a standing committee meeting on Sunday when a committee member requested her to form a Dhaka city unit committee before announcing protest programmes.
"The mayor [Khoka] was there. What did he do? Why did he not try to build resistance when they [the cantonment board] evicted me from my house?" the source quoted Khaleda as saying.
On Wednesday, the former prime minister at a meeting with city leaders expressed displeasure at the thin presence of BNP city unit leaders on the streets during her eviction from the house.
The cantonment board took possession of the disputed cantonment house that the then army chief had allotted to Khaleda after the assassination of her husband.
Khaleda alleged that she was evicted from the house but the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate claimed that she left the house voluntarily showing respect to the rule of law.
BNP enforced a dawn to dusk hartal on November 14 protesting the eviction of its party chief. A handful of senior leaders were seen on the streets during the hartal.
Khaleda's "eviction" and protest programmes were high on the agenda at the standing committee meetings on Sunday and Monday.
Most committee members provoked Khaleda to go for an all-out movement against the government. The party called a hartal on November 30.
Wishing anonymity, a standing committee member expressed doubts about the success of protest programmes without strengthening the party in the capital.
BNP has no committee in Dhaka since June 4, 2008 as the party leadership failed to form any committee due to internal conflicts.
Khaleda has been trying her best to encourage the leaders of her party and its allies to participate in the anti-government programmes.
The BNP chief has already held a series of meetings with leaders of BNP and its allies.
"She [Khaleda] is determined to make the upcoming hartal a success. We promised her our participation in the hartal," said a leader of Islami Oikya Jote after meeting her.
Khaleda will sit with leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami today to discuss the hartal and protest programmes, said officials at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office.