7 BNP leaders held in Sylhet, 40 jump in river to flee

Police arrested seven BNP leaders from a meeting near the party office in Tahirpur upazila on Friday night, on charges of planning sabotage.

The arrestees are Tahirpur upazila unit general secretary Ruhul Amin, joint secretary Mahbubur Rahman Chowdhury, publication secretary Sajidur Rahman, upazila Sramik Dal president Ferdous Alam, its general secretary Emdadul Huda, upazila BNP members Kamal Pasha and Nabab Hossain.

On information that the BNP men were planning to hold a secret meeting, a team of police conducted a drive on the embankment of Bolai river behind the local BNP office.

The group of BNP men were holding a meeting there around 9:00pm, marking the 40th founding anniversary of the party, said Chandan Kumar Dhar, officer-in-charge of Tahirpur Police Station.

Sensing the presence of police, around 40 BNP men jumped into the river and fled away, he said.

Marking the day, BNP leaders and activists held rallies across the country yesterday. Except for Dhaka and Chittagong, a number of party activists alleged that law enforcers foiled their anniversary programmes in many places.