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In a surprise move, police yesterday raided BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office to seize "materials for carrying out anti-state and subversive activities". They found nothing during the more than two-hour-long search.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "We did not get the things for which we carried out the search. We made a zero seizure list and wrapped up the search,” Salahuddin, inspector (investigation) of Gulshan Police Station, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The raid was conducted following a "mysterious" general diary (GD) filed with Gulshan Police Station on Friday. Police did not disclose the identity of the person who filed the diary.
The complainant alleged that a huge quantity of stickers and other materials were stored in Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office for carrying out anti-state and subversive activities. Police claimed to have had confidence in the content of the GD and prayed to a Dhaka court on Friday for permission to raid the office, sources in the police department said.
The court issued the required warrant.
About 100 policemen cordoned off Khaleda's Gulshan office around 7:00am yesterday. The sudden presence of a large number of law enforcers puzzled the staffers who stay at the office.
They called BNP leaders to tell what was going on.
Police entered the building around 7:30am.
Salahuddin, an inspector of Gulshan Police Station, said they completed the search but did not enter Khaleda's office room.
Witnesses said before starting the raid, security was beefed up around Khaleda's office and adjacent streets and movement of people was restricted.
A good number of policemen, including detective police, Rab members and different intelligence agency members were there. A group entered the office while the rest took position outside.
Khaleda's office staffers claimed that the law enforcers broke some CCTV cameras during the raid.
“Police entered the security room on the first floor. They turned off all the CCTV cameras. They broke a good number of cameras too. Then they went to the second floor. They filmed the whole office,” said Mohammad Rashed, an employee of the office who was inside during the raid.
Rashed said police asked him about the books of Vision-2030, a document Khaleda Zia recently announced that outline what the party would do if voted to power.
The police officials did not talk to the media during or after the raid.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi went to the Gulshan office around 9:00am and entered the building after talking to police officials. Twenty minutes later, BNP Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel also went there.
After the raid, police gave a list to the BNP leaders. The list, signed by Gulshan Police Station SI Azizul Islam, mentioned “zero” as seized items but did not mention where the raid was conducted.
After the police had left, senior BNP leaders went to the office. They along with party activists staged a demonstration for a while in front of the office.
Following similar complaints, the police had been allowed to search Khaleda's Gulshan office in March 2015.
In a petition filed before a court on March 1, 2015, Sub-Inspector Sohel Rana of Gulshan Police Station claimed that suspects in a criminal case were hiding in Khaleda's office and they had been communicating with their cohorts across the country and instructing them to carry out subversive activities.
At that time Khaleda was staying at the office after she had announced a countrywide non-stop blockade from January 5, 2015.
Gulshan police got the warrant but did not raid the office.
THE GD
In the GD number 1159 filed on Friday, it was alleged that a substantial amount of “anti-state materials” were stored in House-6 of Road-86 in Gulshan [Khaleda's office] and its adjacent areas to carry out “anti-state activities and subversive activities”.
The materials include stickers urging people to engage in subversive activities, the GD claimed.
It remains a mystery as to who filed the GD.
Asked, Officer-in-Charge Abu Bakkar Siddique of Gulshan Police Station, said they could not disclose the identity of the complainant due to legal reasons.
The Daily Star contacted Deputy Commissioner Mustak Ahmed of Gulshan Division Police, who led the raid, and he suggested talking to Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) media wing about the matter.
During a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre, several high-ranking police officials briefed journalists on a different issue. They avoided journalists' questions regarding the raid.
BNP'S REACTION
Terming the raid unprecedented, BNP leaders said law enforcers acted on a dubious GD only to harass the party chairperson and termed it “a conspiracy against Khaleda Zia”.
They said such a raid was a “crime” and the party would take legal steps in this regard.
The BNP yesterday announced countrywide demonstrations for today to protest the “unlawful” raid in the party chairperson's office.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came down heavily on the government over the raid and said, “The raid proves that the government is intentionally trying to interrupt democratic practices.”
Talking to reporters at his Thakurgaon home, he said there was no democracy in the country.
BNP standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy said the law enforcers turned off the CCTV cameras inside the office to hide their misdeeds.
“As the government is not democratically elected and does not believe in democracy, they always engage in conspiracy. Today's incident stunned the people of the country. We protest and condemn the attack,” he told journalists.
Another BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said he suspects the police had planted something inside the office to put party leaders in danger.
“A government, which is not accountable to the people and is not democratically elected, can do any kind of misdeeds. This act is a crime,” he said demanding fair investigation into the incident.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia's adviser Zainul Abedin said, “According to the law, if there is any search warrant, then the officials have to notify the concerned person and request the person to ensure a representative during the search. But in this case, no one notified us. They conducted the raid at the office without following the law. We will take legal steps in this regard.”
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