Meanwhile the Local Government Division of the LGRD Ministry issued several letters Sunday morning, removing three mayors elected with BNP endorsement from office. In a confounding turn of events, the Mayors of Rajshahi and Sylhet City Corporations were suspended Sunday morning within hours of assuming office. Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul and Ariful Haque Chowdhury, the mayors of Rajshahi and Sylhet City Corporations respectively, were elected in 2013.
In 2015, Mosaddek was named in several cases due to his involvement with anti-government protests. Ariful was accused of the murder of former Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria in 2014. As a result of the cases, they were temporarily suspended from their position.
Both Mosaddek and Ariful are affiliated with Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won another City Corporation election in Comilla this past week. Mosaddek and Ariful took their issues to the High Court, which ruled in their favour and said their mayoralty was completely legal and any act of suspension against them was illegal.
Habiganj Municipality Mayor GK Gaus has also been suspended on Sunday. Gaus, another BNP leader, is listed with Ariful in the Kibria murder case and an attempted murder of the recently deceased Awami League veteran Suranjit Sengupta. Mayor Gaus had been arrested in 2014, and stood in the polls while in prison. He won by a landslide and had taken his mayoral oath on parole. But, he could not assume office. The High Court granted bail to Gaus on January 4 this year. He was finally able to assume office on March 23. However, the Local Government Division issued three circulars on Sunday morning, again removing the three mayors from office.
The government cannot have democracy, if the government is not ready to tolerate elections.
