Khaleda likely to visit Sylhet shrine before graft verdict

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to visit Sylhet on Monday three days before a Dhaka court announces its verdict in a corruption case filed against her.

“Our chairperson (Khaleda) may visit Sylhet on Monday to offer fateha at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (R),” BNP Standing Committee Member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told The Daily Star.

“We will inform media in this regard shortly,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.

The BNP leaders came up with the remarks during the party’s national executive committee's daylong meeting today at Hotel Le Meridian in the capital.

Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Court-5 on January 25 fixed February 8 to announce verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case filed against Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman and four others.

The Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the graft case with Ramna Police Station in July 2008, accusing Khaleda and five others of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that had come from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.