A special meeting of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chittagong North District unit was held here yesterday amid chaos and scuffle between rival groups.
The BNP Chittagong North District unit organised the meeting at a local community centre in presence of the BNP Organisational Team for Chittagong Division.
The 42-member team joined the meeting to know about the condition and activities of the party and its different front organisations at the grassroots level.
Team leader and BNP central committee Vice-chairman Rabeya Chowdhury was the chief guest at the meeting with district unit President Golam Akbar Khandaker in the chair.
At around 4.30pm a chaotic situation developed when General Secretary of BNP Hathazari upazila unit Nur Mohammad, loyal to former whip Syed Wahidul Alam, was addressing the meeting.
Some supporters of former BGMEA president and an aspirant for Hathazari constituency SM Fazlul Hoque started chanting slogans against Wahidul terming him a betrayer of the party.
Wahidul Alam, who left the country immediately after the imposition of the state of emergency in 2007 and returned recently, was sitting on the dais while Fazlul Hoque was sitting amidst his loyalists and supporters in front of the dais.
Supporters of both the group were locked into altercation and got involved in the scuffle.
After half-an-hour-long pandemonium, Golam Akbar and other senior leaders with the assistance of police intervened into the matter and asked the supporters of Fazlul group to leave the scene.
Their leader Fazlul then left the spot along with his supporters. Afterwards, the meeting continued without any further problem.
Speakers at the meeting urged all the leaders and activists of the party to work unitedly under the leadership of its Chairperson Khaleda Zia to win the upcoming election.
Leaders of the visiting team hoped that BNP in Chittagong would continue to play role in strengthening democracy under the direction of Khaleda Zia.
Earlier, district unit president and representatives of seven upazila and six pourasava committees placed organisational reports.
While presenting his report, Golam Akbar hoped that BNP would be able to win most of the seven seats under the north district if the party activists would work unitedly forgetting their differences.
Narrating the reason for such meeting, team leader Rabeya Chowdhury said after the imposition of emergency on January 11 of 2007, BNP suffered much comparing to other political parties.
Directed by BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain seven such organisational teams were formed to visit six divisions to exchange views with the grassroots level leaders and activists, she added.
Joint Secretary of BNP Central Executive Committee Abdullah Al Noman, former whip Syed Wahidul Alam, team member Joinal Abedin Faruk, team Coordinator Md Shahjahan, member Rosy Kabir, Nuri Ara Safa and Rehana Akhter Ranu were present at the meting.