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BNP extends ’moral support’ to hartal
FROM PAGE 1
He was talking to reporters after seeing off party Chairperson Khaleda Zia at Zia International Airport.
Khaleda, also leader of the opposition, left the capital for Saudi Arabia on a seven-day visit to perform Umrah at the invitation of the Saudi Government.
A regular flight of Emirates Airlines carrying Khaleda and her entourage took off the airport at about 11:32am.
Several hundred leaders, workers and supporters of BNP and its associate bodies gathered at the airport to see their chairperson off. They waved hands to her and chanted slogans.
Besides, the wife and two daughters of her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and her brother Sharnim E^kander and his wife, her foreign relations committee member Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, press secretary Maruf Kamal
Khan and personal aides Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas and Mahbub Al Amin Dew were in the entourage of Khaleda Zia.
Khaleda is scheduled to stay at Madina for two days and will offer fateha at the grave of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) and prayers at Masjid-e-Nabawi there. Later, she will go to Makkah to perform Umrah.
Party leaders said BNP chairperson is scheduled to return home on September 18.
Asked about the prime minister's request to the opposition leader to return to the parliament, the BNP secretary general said the government is not sincere in its efforts to bring the opposition back to parliament.
"A congenial atmosphere will have to be created to get us back in parliament," he said on the PM's call to opposition leader Khaleda Zia to return to parliament during an Iftar
party at Senakunja on Thursday.
"We want to make parliament active and effective and that is why we offered to assist the government. But the government does not want our help," he added.
After seeing Khaleda off, BNP leaders led by Delwar placed flowers at the grave of party's founder Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to mark Khaleda's release day-
Party leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, MK Anwar, Mirza Abbas, Selima Rahman, Nazrul Islam Khan, Rizvi Ahmed and Zainal Abdin Farrooq, among others, were present.
BNP chairperson was freed from detention on this day a year ago after her arrest during the rule of military-backed caretaker government on a raft of corruption charges. The party has announced a two-day programme to observe the
day.
The opposition party also arranged special prayers at mosques, temples, churches and pagodas as part of the two-day programme.
Khaleda earlier refused to leave the country for Saudi Arabia several times which was billed as an exile during the tenure of army-backed caretaker government. The interim government had reportedly kept her under pressure to leave the country.
At one stage, the BNP chairperson agreed to leave the country on condition but the Saudi authorities did not issue visa, as they were not convinced whether Khaleda decided to leave for KSA under coercion or of her own will.
Against this backdrop, the interim government arrested her on different charges including corruption on September 2, 2007 and later released on bail on September 11,2008.