Ninety-two days after her stay in her Gulshan office, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia returned to her Gulshan residence on Sunday following her bail in two graft cases. From the special court at Bakshibazar in the city, Khaleda’s motorcade entered her Gulshan residence around 12:20pm instead of her Gulshan office where she had been staying since January 3. Earlier in the day, the BNP chief who was facing an arrest warrant in two graft cases started her journey for the appearing before the court from her Gulshan office around 9:55 am and reached the court premises around 10:35am. The court granted her bail in the two cases after hearing. Later, Khaleda and her entourage left the court premises around 11:50 pm. For the first time since January 3, Khaleda came out of her Gulshan office in the morning to go to the court. She had not left her office for a single time earlier in the 92 days, even after the death of her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and on Amar Ekushey and Independence Days. Earlier on Saturday evening, the Nayapaltan central office of her party BNP reopened on Saturday evening, three months after its closure. A group of BNP leaders and activists, led by its assistant office secretary Asadul Karim Shahin, entered the office around 7:40pm breaking open a lock put by police at the main gate. Police put the BNP headquarters under lock and key on January 3 around 11:10pm prior to the first anniversary of the January-5 election. Minutes after police locked the BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, the law enforcers also ‘confined Khaleda to her office’ on January 3 last around 11:30pm, a day before her party-led 20-party’s much-hyped January-5 rally in the city to mark what she said ‘Democracy Killing Day’ to protest the 10th parliamentary polls that her BNP and its allies boycotted. On January 19, 15 days after their strong vigil, police withdrew their barricade from in front of BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office freeing her from her confinement to the office. Khaleda had held a press conference on the day and said she would stay her office to carry out party’s activities. Khaleda had stayed at her chamber on the second floor of her office and a rest room beside it. Meanwhile, minutes after Khaleda left her Gulshan office for going to the court, most party leaders and staff who had been staying with her at the office also left it. BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, Khaleda’s adviser Abdul Quayum, her press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan left the Gulshan office around 10am. BNP vice chairman Selima Rahman, Khaleda’s special assistants Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, Mahbub Al Amin Dew and Mohila Dal general secretary Shirin Sultana left the office with Khaleda’s motorcade. – UNB, Dhaka.
