Khaleda still kept captive

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia spent the fourth straight day in confinement on Tuesday at her Gulshan office padlocked by the law enforcers from outside on Saturday night. Khaleda Zia was seriously ill, vomited twice and had watery eyes and could not even move on her own, her press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told reporters at about 8:15pm. She fell sick on Monday afternoon when police used pepper spray to disperse her party activists at the office gate, Maruf Kamal said. Khaleda was undergoing treatment under a private physician, he said. She is taking food supplied from outside. Although the number of police deployed at her office was reduced, a considerable number of riot police backed by by armoured vehicles and water cannons stood guard at the gate, which was locked from outside by them. At least 20 other police vehicles remained standby at different points, including the entrance to the road leading to the office building and adjacent roads. BNP office staff said the police did not allow anyone but representatives of World Tabligh Jamaat and political scientist professor Emajuddin Ahmed to enter or go out of the office on Tuesday. BNP sources said Tabligh Jamaat men came to invite Khaleda to attend the Bishwa Ijtema scheduled to begin on January 9. ‘Khaleda Zia is seriously ill, she cannot even move on her own,’ Emajuddin Ahmed told reporters at about 7:00pm after visiting her.

Khaleda, however, issued a statement demanding release of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who was arrested by Detective Branch of police on Tuesday afternoon in the capital. Police laid siege to Khaleda’s Gulshan office on Saturday night, ahead of a scheduled rally to observe ‘democracy killing day’, which she was to attend on Monday marking the January 5, 2014 election that was boycotted by opposition parties. The trucks carrying sand and bricks, placed near Khaleda’s office, were removed on Monday. Police locked the gate from outside around noon on Monday as soon as they heard that Khaleda was preparing to leave the office to attend the rally. Khaleda got into her car at about 3:45pm in a bid to come out of the office only to be barred by the police. The police used pepper spray to disperse the party activists trying to come out as Khaleda’s car approached the gate. The pepper spray left 10 journalists and three BNP leaders and office staff injured. Gulshan police inspector Firoj Kabir could not say when the siege of Khaleda’s office would be lifted. ‘Only top officials know when the security measures taken for Khaleda Zia would be withdrawn,’ he said. Earlier on December 28, 2013, Khaleda Zia was confined to her Gulshan house hours before she was scheduled to start for her party’s ‘march for democracy’ programme on December 29. She had been confined to the house for 11 days. Police, also used trucks carrying sand and bricks, water cannon, armoured personnel carriers, prison vans and police pickups in front the office at that time.

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