BNP leaders denied meeting Khaleda again

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders on Thursday failed to meet party chairperson Khaleda Zia as they were stopped at the jail gate at the last minute.

BNP leaders said they went to the gate of abandoned jail on Nazimuddin Road as per schedule given by jail authorities at 3:30pm Thursday to visit Khaleda Zia but they were told that they could not be allowed to meet her at that moment.

“Jail authorities gave us permission to visit her the day before yesterday (Tuesday). But they cancelled the scheduled meeting and asked us to come today (Thursday). We came as per their schedule, but...," BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told newsmen.

Fakhrul, accompanied by BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Nazrul Islam Khan, stayed there 25 minutes but went back once the jail authorities declined the scheduled meeting.

Mirza Fakhrul said, "They (authorities) inform us that it is not possible today. They, however, said the visit may take place in a day or two."

The jail authorities assigned the absence of the inspector general of prisons as reason for not allowing the BNP leaders to meet Khaleda Zia, Fakhrul said when asked why they were denied the meeting despite permission.

"He has gone to Kashimpur; that’s why they didn't allow us to meet her. This is what they told us," Fakhrul said.

The jail authorities later informed journalists that the BNP leaders would be able to visit visit Khaleda Zia after 2:00pm on next Sunday.

They clarified that the BNP leaders would not require fresh permission for the visit.

Fakhrul earlier on 29 March could not meet Khaleda because of illness of the BNP chairperson.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, landed in jail after she had been setenced to five years of imprisonment by the court of judge Md. Akhtaruzzaman in a graft case on 8 February.