Khaleda rebukes party top brass

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia last night came down heavily on the party's standing committee members for being “inactive” for waging a fresh anti-government movement.

“The government didn't give us permission to hold a rally in Dhaka to mark November 7 [National Revolution and Solidarity Day]. But you are all silent on the issue. Even in talk shows, you are not vocal against the government's widespread corruption,” she told a meeting of the party's highest policymaking body at her Gulshan office.

She blasted the party leaders for stopping the agitation programme after the one-sided January 5 polls, said meeting sources.

“We should have continued the movement after the farcical election. But none of you advised me to this end. Even some foreigners at that time had asked me why we were not in a movement,” a standing committee member quoted Khaleda as saying.

Criticising Mirza Abbas, she said the BNP leader couldn't do anything in Dhaka.

Abbas responded: It's hard to complete reorganisation of the party's Dhaka city unit as police are detaining BNP men and filing cases against them.

At one stage, the BNP chief said she will take to the streets and all her party leaders will have to join her in the movement.

As some standing committee members responded positively to her comment,

Pointed at filing of a charge sheet yesterday against Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Habiganj municipality Mayor GK Gaus in the SAMS Kibria murder case, she said the government wants to “destroy” the BNP.