Staff Reporter :BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia on Monday announced an indefinite countrywide blockade to protest government’s restriction on the rally of the BNP-led 20-party alliance and for confining her. “The blockade will continue until the further instruction,” she said while talking to reporters on her office premises. She asked the 20-party men to continue the movement until their demand is realised.Confined in her Gulshan office since Saturday night, Khaleda Zia on Monday afternoon tried to come out of the besieged office. As part of her efforts, she got into her car at about 3:45 pm and waited forthe gates to be opened. But she could not leave the office as police kept all the gates under lock and key. At that time, the BNP men, who were with the BNP Chairperson in the office compound, tried to force open the gate from inside, but police barred them. Police did not respond to the instruction of the BNP Chief to open the gate. Rather, police used pepper spray on the BNP men and scattered them away. The aggrieved BNP leaders and activists chanted various slogans against the government.Police confined the BNP Chief to the Gulshan office from 11:30pm on Saturday, forcing her to spend three consecutive nights there. She was staying in the office till filing the report. At least 10 brick and sand-laden trucks have been remaining parked in front of the office since Sunday night. Two police trucks and a water cannon were also seen near her office.Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and other forces joined policemen on Monday noon as the law enforcers kept Khaleda Zia’s office cordoned off in a bid to stop her from going out. The law enforcers locked the gates of the office shortly after the BNP Chief announced that she would leave the office after 2:00pm and hold rally wherever she was intercepted.The BNP led 20-party alliance had announced that they would hold a rally in the city on January 5 calling the day as ‘Democracy Killing Day’, while the ruling Awami League had also announced holding counter rally on the day. Amid the escalating tensions due to announcement of counter rallies, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Sunday imposed a ban on holding all kinds of rallies in the city from 5:00 P.M on Sunday until further notice. Security was beefed up across the capital amid vow by the BNP Chief to hold the rally at any cost. While talking to reporters on her office premises, Khaleda Zia came down heavily on the government for besieging her office. Protesting the statement of the government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, she posed a question as to why so many policemen were around her office if she was not confined. Turning to the government’s claim that police were providing security to her as per her request, Khaleda Zia said the government did not provide any security when needed. Noting that they wanted to hold a peaceful rally, she said, everybody knows as to why she was confined and why the rally was not allowed to be held. The government fears the people, and so it did not allow the 20-party alliance to hold the rally, she added. She alleged that the government had made Bangladesh a police country. She claimed that not only she, the whole country is now confined. “The repressive government has turned the entire country into a jail. If I am not confined, why the government did not allow many prominent personalities, including former President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, to meet me?” She said that the government was trying to suppress the democratic movement by resorting to bullets and teargas, filing false cases and launching attacks on the opposition parties’ leaders and workers. Besides, BNP Chairperson’s Special Assistant Shimul Biswas alleged that the government has resorted to falsehood about Khaleda Zia’s confinement.
