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Troubled BNP faces leadership crunch
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP is in a leadership crisis as many of its big shots are behind bars, while those out are either on the run to avoid arrests or too old for active politics.In addition, party sources say, the top brass of its Dhaka city unit remains inactive fearing police action. All these have left BNP chief  Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... struggling to pick a leader to guide the party through, particularly after acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has gone into hiding to escape arrest, the sources add. Party's Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed had been acting as the party spokesperson since Fakhrul went into hiding following the arrest of three standing committee members -- Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia -- on November 8. Khaleda's adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo and her special assistant Shimul Biswas were also jugged Please don't kill me! on the same day. Last week, another standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah was picked up. They all face charges of instigating recent hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... violence. Things took a turn for the worse for the party after police arrested Rizvi from its Nayapaltan office early on Friday on similar charges. To carry out the party's official activities and handle the press in Fakhrul's absence, Rizvi had been staying at the party office round the clock. To evade arrest, he never came out of the office since November 8. Following Rizvi's arrest, the party asked Salahuddin Ahmed, another joint secretary general, to serve as acting spokesperson. But instead of appearing in public, he is making video speeches from an unknown location and sending those to various television channels. He has been doing this to avoid arrest, according to the sources. Salahuddin is also keeping contacts with a section of media through his mobile phone, but he keeps his phone switched off most of the time so that police cannot track him, they added. From their hideouts, Fakhrul and Salahuddin are issuing press statements and sending it to the media via email. At the moment, five of the 18 BNP standing committee members are in jail. Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... , who is senior vice-chairman of the party, is also a standing committee member as ex officio. He went to London for treatment in 2008, and is living there since. RA Ghani, 82, and ailing M Shamsul Islam, 81, cannot even take part in the standing committee meetings because of their advanced age. Most of the other standing committee members that are out are accused in various cases filed over recent violence during opposition hartal and blockade. Of them, Mirza Abbas and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy face charges of instigating arson and vandalism. Posted by: Fred 2013-12-02 |
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