Opposition leader Khaleda Zia, along with her entourage -were stranded for five minutes in an elevator at parliament building last night.

An engineer at the parliament secretariat said that the incident occured due to magnetic fault which may have occured due to low voltage of electricity.

She boarded the elevator on the west block of Jatiya Sangsad along with her private and government security personnel to attend the BNPPP meeting on the 9th floor at about 7:54 pm.

When the elevator reached the floor, the liftman found that it was about 8 inches above floor level and the door was stuck.

Jubadal leader Giasuddin Khokon, also a member of her private security force, said that the liftman rang up the control room, twice, but no help forth-came. Securitymen forced the door open, following insruc-tions from a panicked Khaleda.

BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Begum Zia's private security chief Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan along with others had been waiting to receive her outside the lift.

When contacted, sub-divisional engineer of parliament Shaflqul Islam said such an incident had never occured in the past 19 years since 1980 when the elevator became operational. He, however, said that the elevator had resumed functioning. automatically.

Begum Zia when asked about the incident after her party's meeting said. "Yes, I was stranded for five minutes inside the lift.The liftman rang up the control room but none came." She. however, refused to make any further comments.