The issue of Jamaat's protest did not come up prominently in the emergency meeting of party's big shots with
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
in the chair at her Gulshan office on Monday night.
Even, the issue was almost ignored in the reasons behind declaring the hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
"It is significant that Jamaat protested at a time in many places in the country. But it was not consulted with BNP. We will not bear responsibilities of any party's own decisions," a member of BNP standing committee said wishing anonymity.
The issue was raised in the meeting for a while but chairperson was not interested to continue, he said.
Party leader Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu said, "Jamaat is waging their movement to make their leaders free. It is their own programme. We should not have any say on it."
Some BNP leaders, however, think that Jamaat wanted to mount pressure on BNP so that the BNP-led four party alliances will be forced to take tougher anti-government programme ahead of the scheduled rally.
But, BNP decided not to react too much over Jamaat's violent protest and arrest of its leaders on Monday.
BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, however, said, "We have issued a statement on Monday night."
Party insiders said the top leadership of BNP is still reluctant to take a tough stance for the release of Jamaat leaders though Jamaat is repeatedly requesting the BNP high ups to do something more in this respect.