[WATCH] What really happened during cop raid at BNP Gulshan office?
Police conducted a raid at the Gulshan office of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia this morning.
A team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted the one and half hour long raid starting around 8:30am.
The raid was conducted with a ‘search warrant’ issued by a Dhaka court to look for anti-state documents, said a police official, who took part in the drive, seeking anonymity.
The policemen took position in front of the BNP office around 7:30am and entered the office around 8:30am after breaking the lock of the collapsible gate, Rashed Ahmed, a staff of the office, told The Daily Star.
Around 20 officials of several law enforcement agencies including Detective Branch of police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) took part in the raid, he said.
After entering the office, the police officials turned off the CCTV cameras and also damaged some of the cameras, Rashed said.
They searched in the rooms of the ground floor and first floor of the office and took photos and video footage of the rooms and documents kept there, he said.
The law enforcers left the office empty handed around 9:30am after conducting the raid, he added.
Meanwhile, witnesses and locals said police had restricted movement of vehicles in the roads adjacent to the BNP office.
BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed went to the BNP office around 9:00am and entered the office after talking to the police officials outside. Some other senior BNP leaders including the party’s standing committee members Nazrul Islam Khan and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy went to the spot after the law enforcers’s raid ended.
The raid was conducted after an unknown individual filed a general diary (GD) and a search warrant was issued by a magistrate, Rizvi said.
BNP leader Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel showed a copy of the GD where it was mentioned that based on secret information there may be a stock of anti-state stickers and other documents that could jeopardise the law and order situation of the country somewhere at house number 6 on road 86 in Gulshan-2 and adjacent areas.
However, it was nowhere mentioned in the GD that the spot was BNP’s Gulshan office.
Police reportedly later gave a ‘list’ according to which they found nothing of importance, the BNP leaders said.
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