After remaining confined in her Gulshan residence for 16 days, the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia got out of her house yesterday.
She went to her political office in Gulshan which she had last visited on December 25.
She arrived at her office around 7:40pm to hold a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Dhaka Li Jun.
The former premier rode her white Nissan Petrol that did not carry the national flag. However, her car was escorted by police.
Khaleda Zia has lost her position as the Leader of the Opposition in the parliament yesterday following the publication of a gazette notification confirming Rawshan Ershad as the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th parliament.
For the first time in 23 years, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will not hold any parliamentary post – either as leader of the House or leader of the opposition – as she has enjoyed since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991.
Some hundred party leaders and activists including her advisers Osman Farruk and Sabihuddin Ahmed received Khaleda after she arrived at her office yesterday.
In a press statement Khaleda alleged that she had been kept under house arrest and was not allowed to meet her party leaders and activists.
Additional law enforcers including RAB and police were deployed around her Gulshan residence from December 25, a day after she announced March for Democracy programme in the capital.
Later, five sand laden trucks were put on the road in front of her residence.
Earlier, police barred Khaleda from coming out of her residence to join the March for Democracy programme on December 29 which was later extended by a day.
On January 8, the barricade and the law enforcers were withdrawn from in front of her house.
While in confinement, some diplomats went to met Khaleda at her residence and also some foreign journalists went to interview her.
However, a deserted environment still prevails at BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters as none of the party leaders and activists went to the office since the arrest of party’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
