Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) central office in Dhaka’s Nayapaltan was reopened on Thursday, nearly 75 days after closure following clashes with police during the party’s grand rally on October 28, 2023.
Led by BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, leaders and activists of BNP unlocked the collapsible gate of the office around at around 10:42am. They entered the office while shouting various anti-government slogans.
“We entered BNP’s central office by breaking the lock. A massive rally was foiled through a brutal crackdown by the government’s subservient law-enforcement agencies on October 28…later police locked the office,” said Rizvi.
But earlier on November 14, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Habibur Rahman said BNP themselves have locked their central office in Nayapaltan although there have been no restrictions on them entering the office.
“We’ve stationed police in front of the BNP headquarters for a month to ensure security. However, they are free to access their office at any time” he added.
Habibur Rahman said, “The padlock on their Nayapaltan office was not placed by us but by BNP themselves. They’ve been notably absent from the office lately and they would know the reasons better.”
After the party’s grand rally was foiled halfway through on October 28 at Nayapaltan amid clashes with police, the collapsible gate of the BNP’s office was closed with the deployment of a huge number of law enforcers in the area.
Members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) marked the areas in front of the main gate of the BNP office with the crime scene tape inscribed with “Do not cross” to collect evidence for investigation into severe political violence.
Later, the CID's Crime Scene Unit collected evidence from the site and later removed the crime scene tape.
