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Troubled BNP faces leadership crunch

Overwhelmed by cases, its leaders are on the run or behind bars

Rashidul Hasan
The BNP is in a leadership crisis as many of its senior leaders are behind bars, while those out are either on the run to avoid arrests or too old for active politics.
In addition, party sources say, the top brass of its Dhaka city unit remains inactive fearing police action.
All these have left BNP chief Khaleda Zia struggling to pick a leader to guide the party through, particularly after acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has gone into hiding to escape arrest, the sources add.
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Party's Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed had been acting as the party spokesperson since Fakhrul went into hiding following the arrest of three stand-ing committee members -- Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia -on Novembers.
Khaleda's adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo and her special assistant Shimul Biswas were also arrested on the same day. Last week, another standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah was picked up. They all face charges of instigating recent hartal violence.
Things took a turn for the worse for the party after police arrested Rizvi from its Nayapaltan office early on Friday on similar charges.
To carry out the party's official activities and handle the press in Fakhrul's absence, Rizvi had been staying at the party office round the clock. To evade arrest, he never came out of the office since November 8.
Following Rizvi's arrest, the party asked Salahuddin Ahmed, another joint secretary general, to serve as acting spokesperson. But instead of appearing in public, he is making video speeches from an unknown location and sending those to various television channels. He has been doing this to avoid arrest, according to the sources.
Salahuddin is also keeping contacts with a section of media through his mobile phone, but he keeps his phone switched off most of the time so that police cannot track him, they added.
From their hideouts, Fakhrul and Salahuddin are issuing press statements and sending it to the media via email.
At the moment, five of the 18 BNP standing committee members are in jail. Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman, who is senior vice-chairman of the party, is also a standing committee member as ex officio. He went to London for treatment in 2008, and is living there since.
RA Ghani, 82, and ailing M Shamsul Islam, 81, cannot even take part in the standing committee meetings because of their advanced age.
Most of the other standing committee members that are out are accused in various cases filed over recent violence during opposition hartal and blockade. Of them, Mirza Abbas and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy face charges of instigating arson and vandalism.
Many standing committee members keep their mobile phones switched off most of the time to avoid the media or the police. Besides, many leaders of the party's executive committee are on the run, the sources said.
The party’s Dhaka city unit convener Sadeque Hossain Khoka has not been seen in public since October 25, the day the 18-party alliance held a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan. Member Secretary MA Salam has also been avoiding media since mid-October.
All these have put journalists in a difficult position, as they cannot contact