Khaleda Zia verdict: BNP announces fresh protest programme

BNP will launch a mass signature campaign on February 17 demanding the release of its Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who is jailed for five years in a corruption case.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the second phase of the protest programmes at a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan office in Dhaka this noon.

As per the programme, the party will submit a memorandum to the deputy commissioner on February 18 and hold protest programmes in all the district centres throughout the country on February 20, Fakhrul said.

The first spell of the BNP's agitation programmes over the jailing of Khaleda ended yesterday with the staging of token hunger strikes across the country.

In the capital, party leaders and activists broke the hunger strike in front of the Jatiya Press Club three hours ahead of schedule upon request from law enforcers.

Meanwhile, seven days have passed since the jailing of Khaleda, but her lawyers are yet to get the certified copy of the special court's verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Court sources said the copy might be supplied today. The lawyers neither can file an appeal nor can lodge a bail petition for Khaleda with the High Court without having the certified copy.

The BNP chief landed in jail on February 8 after a special court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.