‘BNP can join elections conducted by Hasina’

Police have arrested Shamsuzzaman Dudu, an adviser of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Dhaka on Sunday.
He was detained from Mirpur amid the BNP-sponsored countrywide transport blockade. Mirpur police OC Salauddin Ahmed confirmed the arrest on Sunday evening.
Dudu was the party spokesperson in 2013 when most of the BNP’s top leaders were in jail. Police did not elaborate the reason for his arrest.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) early on Monday picked up two BNP leaders-Mohammad Shajahan and Belal Ahmed- from Gulshan area of the city.
Shajahan is a joint secretary general of the party while Belal Ahmed an executive committee member.
“Members of RAB-1 arrested them at about 5:30am for their alleged involvement in antigovernment conspiracies,” Major Maksudul Alam of RAB media and legal wing said.
Later, they will be handed over to the concerned police station, he said.
BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi urged the supporters of the party alert and blamed the government for violence during its blockade.
In a press briefing at a Gulshan home on Saturday, he said, “Suppressing and smattering our peaceful blockade with blood, the government is executing its plan to kill more people by changing administrators.”
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court has remanded senior BNP leader Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury for five days in a case filed over the attack on ruling MP Chhabi Biswas.
Hearing a police petition on Friday, metropolitan magistrate Emdadul Haque issued the order, court police’s additional deputy commissioner Anisur Rahman said.
Shahbagh Police Station Sub-Inspector AKM Saiful Haque Bhuyian wanted to grill the BNP vice chairman to police custody for 10 days.
He was arrested at his house at Banani on Thursday night and taken to Detective Branch headquarters at Minto Road.
The former foreign secretary was also BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s foreign affairs advisor.
On the other hand, BNP’s student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) has called a daylong general strike for Monday in 14 districts including Dhaka. However, the Dhaka City is exempt from the shutdown.
A statement issued by JCD’s Office Secretary Abdus Sattar Patwary said the programme was to protest against the ‘besieging’ of BNP chief Khaleda Zia and demand release of arrested party leaders.
Our Staff Reporter adds: Former VC of Dhaka University Emajuddin Ahamed has said that Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) can join general elections conducted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration, but the army must play a major role in the polls to ensure it is free and fair.
“There is no problem (for BNP) to take part in elections accepting Sheikh Hasina as the prime minister. But she (Hasina) has to stop enjoying all state facilities and privileges and go by rules,” he said.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami through a media release condemned arrest of 20-party alliance leaders from throughout the country and demanded their unconditional release.
–Special Correspondent