Eighteen hours after disconnecting power supply, the authorities restored electricity to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office around 10:30pm yesterday.
However, all kinds of voice and data connections to the office remained snapped until filing of this report around 10:45pm. Until then, Khaleda has been staying in her office.
Earlier she said the ongoing blockade and hartal programmes would continue until “victory” is achieved.
Meanwhile, several offices of the Power Development Board (PDB) have come under attack in different parts of the country.
Miscreants hurled crude bombs targetting two local offices of PDB in Chittagong and Sirajganj in the afternoon.
Until power connection was restored, a generator was supplying electricity to Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office. Initially, the generator took a long time to get started because it was hardly ever needed before.
The water supply to the office has been in tact until last evening; but police did not allow the office staff to take in two drums of water.
Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco) disconnected electricity line of the office around 2:42am yesterday, said the BNP chief’s press wing official Shamsuddin Didar.
One Desco staff claimed that he cut the electricity line as per instruction from Gulshan police. It was seen that a technician from a state-run power utility was climbing a ladder and cutting the line outside Khaleda’s office.
The disconnection came hours after Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan threatened to sever electrical supply to the office and force Khaleda to starve to death if she did not call off the nationwide transport blockade.
The mobile and wireless internet networks were severed yesterday morning.
“Since yesterday [Friday] night, she has been passing sleepless hours with her two grand daughters [Koko’s daughters]. It is utter cruelty of the government. I have no word to say anything in this regard. I am stunned. A civilised government cannot behave like this. It is beyond imagination,” Maruf Kamal Khan, press secretary to the BNP chairperson, told reporters quoting his boss.
According to Maruf, Khaleda also said that it was a violation of human rights and the citizen charter of the Desco.
Khaleda has been allegedly confined in her Gulshan office since January 3 after she issued a threat to rally her supporters against the government led by her arch rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the first anniversary of last year’s controversial general election.
On January 12, security was relaxed, but Khaleda never came out and declared that she was going to stay there and blockade would continue unless the government took the first steps towards a solution.
The relaxed blockade is underway across the country amid incidents of violence, arson, vandalism and arrests of BNP members.
On January 24, after Arafat Rahman Koko died in Malaysia, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sent back from the gate of the Gulshan office where she went to condole Khaleda.
Tens of thousands of people turned up at the Baitul Mukarram mosque the next day, in what appeared to be the biggest showdown for the BNP in months.
The blockade, which enters day 27 today, and the associated unrest have so far left at least 40 people dead, hundreds injured and nearly a thousand vehicles firebombed or damaged.
She also called a 72-hour strike starting today, despite nationwide high-school examinations in which about 1.5 million students are taking part.
After the arrest of BNP’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday, another Joint Secretary Salahuddin Ahmed came into the scene and issued a press release alleging the incumbent government of burying democracy.
“Marshall law has been prevailing in the country in the name of democracy,” Salahuddin said in the release.
He alleged that the government has not only confined three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia but also confined the people and turned the whole country into a jail.
The BNP leader condemned the power and cable cut to Khaleda’s office saying: “It is a rare example in history of world civilisation.”
He asked the government to reconnect everything immediately, otherwise consequences would not be good and the government would have to shoulder responsibility if any untoward situation is created.
He urged all the rights watchdogs home and abroad including the United Nations Human Rights Commission to take effective steps to remedy the situation in Bangladesh.
