The official red telephone at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan 2 residence was activated on Monday, after she had complained about it to the prime minister during their phone conversation on Saturday.
Officials of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) attended the phone in the afternoon and fixed it when they changed the phone set and dropware of the connection, a high official of the state-owned company confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune.
“Our staff entered the residence around 2pm on Tuesday [on Monday] and now the phone is active,” Mohammad Morshed, an official spokesperson of the BTCL, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Khaleda on the red phone several times, but the BNP said it had been dead for a long time, and so she could not receive the call.
The BTCL spokesperson, however, said there had been no complaint about the phone at Khaleda’s residence before October 26, and they also found no problem in the connection and the exchanges at the ends of the prime minister and the opposition leader.
He said they had also checked the telephone in red exchange and the cabinet in front of Khaleda’s residence but found no problem.
The government established the digital red telephone exchange at the PMO in 2009, having 3,000 connections.
