NCP signboard placed on Awami League office in Charfesson

The National Citizen Party (NCP) began party activities after taking control of the local office of the Awami League in Charfesson upazila of Bhola.

A NCP signboard was hung on the three-story building of the Awami League office on College Road in Charfesson Municipality on Saturday afternoon and NCP activities began there today, Sunday.

Local sources said students and people vandalised the homes of local Awami League leaders as well as the party office, following the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August last year.

Since then, the building has remained abandoned. Six months ago, a woman started selling tea on the ground floor of the building, and all the doors and windows of the building remained open.

Several witnesses said they noticed the NCP signboard hanging on the building on Saturday afternoon.

Certain Wahid Faisal, who claimed to be an NCP leader of the upazila, led the takeover.

He was accompanied by Md Shahabuddin, Amzad Habib, Nure Alam Nasim, Sharif Hossain and other activists.

A PA announcement was made from the building’s roof to broadcast messages demanding the banning of the Awami League.

When asked, Wahid Faisal told Prothom Alo over mobile phone, “We (NCP) are not the occupiers. You must understand that the Awami League first occupied it. Awami League built this building in 2011–12. Half of the land is privately owned (recorded as Chandina vita), and the other half is khas land. Before taking over, we spoke to the actual owner of the land and started the process to take lease of the government owned part.”

Another NCP leader, Md Shahabuddin, said, “Actually, we did not take over the building. It was lying abandoned and neglected, so we just cleaned it up and began using it.”

Yasir Arafat, who is in charge of NCP’s organisational activities in Bhola, said that 10, including Wahid Faisal, Hasan Mahmud, Shahadat Khandaker, Baharul Islam, Md Shubho, Monju, and Hafiz Shahabuddin, operates NCP’s activities in Charfesson upazila.

They learned about the takeover of Awami League office and informed the central leadership. Neither the district nor central leadership had any instruction on the takeover. NCP’s Charfesson unit did it without informing the district or central leadership. The central committee would soon order to vacate the Awami League office.

Charfesson police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mizanur Rahman Hawlader declined to comment on the matter.