Internet, cable, phone still down at Khaleda’s office

Cut off from yesterday, the internet, cable television and phone connections to the Gulshan office of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia are still down since last reported today.

It has been over 24-hours that phone and internet connections are down in the house located on road No. 86 of Gulshan-2, Syrul Kabir Khan, a staff of BNP chief’s media wing, told The Daily Star Online in the morning.

The BNP chairperson’s office, where Khaleda has been residing since January 3, went out of power, internet, cable TV, land phone and mobile phone connection yesterday.

Though power returned after 19 hours yesterday, other utility services were still down when Syrul Kabir was reached around 11:00am. He said he was talking from outside the “dead range”.

“We expected that all the links like the internet, land and mobile phones and satellite television would be restored. But the lines are down still,” he said. “It is like the stone age.”

“BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s party office is virtually cut off from all forms of communication,” he said. However, power, gas and water lines were okay. Members of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were patrolling streets adjacent to the office, he alleged.

Khaleda’s utility lines were cut yesterday after her party refused to withdraw agitation ahead of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams scheduled to begin from tomorrow.

Despite repeated requests from the government, the BNP not only did not withdraw the blockade, but also called for a 72-hour hartal that began from today.

The move to cut off utility lines to the Gulshan office was condemned by Khaleda who dubbed the event “the worst kind of cruelty.”