The senior leaders of BNP have written to the prison authority seeking permission to visit party chief Khaleda Zia on Eid day on Wednesday. A similar request was turned down during the last Eid-ul-Fitr, reports bdnews24.com.
The BNP has sent a letter to the jail authority on behalf of its senior leaders last Sunday, said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press meet on Tuesday.
“We have written to the jail authority seeking permission to meet our leader Begum Khaleda Zia and if permitted the senior leaders will meet her. We hope our request will be approved.”
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been jailed for five years in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and has remained in prison since Feb 8, at the old jailhouse of Dhaka Central Jail in Old Dhaka.
In June, the BNP secretary general, along with its standing committee members had written to the jail authority to visit Khaleda during the Eid-ul-Fitr but the authority allowed only her family members to meet her.
Some of her relatives, including Khaleda’s sister and younger brother, visited her in jail on that day.
The BNP has petitioned for a few of its Standing Committee members and Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir be allowed to visit the chairperson.
“Her relatives can visit her like any other prisoner’s relatives do, if they apply. However, I am not aware of any such application,” Mahbubul Islam, jailer of Dhaka Central Jail, told bdnews24.com.
Rizvi also criticised Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader and Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan for their “failures” while citing the statistics of road accidents and describing the plight of passengers travelling home during the Eid holidays.
The BNP leader also rubbished recent comments by Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed, calling them ‘weird and baseless.’