On Sunday, the Environment and Forest Minister Hasan Mahmud said the detained BNP leaders might be released if the main opposition withdraws the hartal and calls for peace.
The minister made the statement while talking to a journalist at his office in the secretariat.
Talking about the arrest, he said: “There is no problem in enforcing the hartal, but killing people and torching vehicles in its name is not acceptable; that is why they [the BNP leaders] were arrested.”
“Government will take tougher action if the opposition tries to create violence in the name of hartal,” Hasan said.
He claimed that police were deployed in front of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s residence for her own security.
He informed the journalist that she was not arrested.
The minister is likely to submit his resignation to the prime minister in the afternoon.