Crisis not over even after series of talks

The crisis in Chhatra Dal seems to be far from over as senior BNP leaders yesterday failed to convince the aggrieved JCD leaders on its new central committee.
In a meeting with rebel JCD leaders, BNP Dhaka city unit Convener Mirza Abbas and Jubo Dal President Moazzem Hossain Alal offered the student leaders posts in the party's front organisations.
Rejecting the offer, the JCD leaders demanded scrapping of the new JCD committee and forming a new one comprised of dedicated and tested leaders, said sources in the meeting which was held at Abbas' Shajahanpur residence.
Talking to The Daily Star after the meeting, a rebel leader, requesting anonymity, said: “The meeting failed to find out any solution to the problem. Moazzem Hossain Alal wrote down all our demands and complaints against the new Chhatra Dal president and general secretary. He will meet Khaleda Zia tonight [last night].”
As the party chairperson will go to Nilphamari today (Wednesday), the aggrieved leaders have postponed their protest programmes for two days, he added.
Several JCD leaders said in the meeting they also demanded removal of Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and Sultan Salauddin Tuku from the posts of BNP's student affairs secretary and assistant student affairs secretary.
Mirza Abbas told reporters that they listened to the grievances from the Chhatra Dal leaders and will sit again with them.
Khaleda on Monday night tasked Abbas and Alal with ending the infighting in the student front.
The former premier on October 14 approved a 201-member (partial) new central committee of the JCD, with Rajib Ahsan as president and Akramul Hasan general secretary.
The following day, the aggrieved Chhatra Dal men staged demonstrations in front of BNP's Nayapaltan central office and Gulshan office of Khaleda.
BNP BLAMES GOVT'S AGENTS
The BNP yesterday blamed government's agents for blasting cocktails and vandalising its Nayapaltan office during a demonstration by Chhatra Dal men in the capital on Sunday.
Addressing a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said law enforcement agencies picked up “innocent” JCD leaders and activists near the party office yesterday.
“But the same police remained inactive when cocktails went off in front of the BNP office [on Sunday]. On-duty police members near the office didn't come forward to help the injured from blasts,” he mentioned.
This has made it clear that “government's agents” were behind the Sunday's anarchy to create division in Chhatra Dal, said Fakhrul.
The JCD men, he added, have been detained at a time when the student body was close to resolve its internal problem. “It proves that the government wants to implement its blueprint for destroying Chhatra Dal.”
On Sunday, several cocktails went off near the Nayapaltan central office of BNP around 2:10pm when a clash broke out between two rival groups of JCD over formation of its new central committee. About 10 Chhatra Dal men were hurt in the clash.
Meanwhile, Paltan police yesterday freed 20 JCD men hours after they were detained in front of the Nayapaltan office of BNP on suspicion of involvement in sabotage.