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BNP lawmakers move to 'free' Khaleda

Seek Speaker's help, meet president today

Staff Correspondent
BNP leaders would meet President Abdul Hamid this afternoon and ask the chief of state to intervene and "free their party chief from being confined to her home”
The press secretary to the president said the BNP leaders have an appointment with the president in Bangabhaban at 4:00pm.
Party insiders told The Daily Star that failing to wage a movement to "free" Khaleda, BNP was seeking the Speaker and the president's help.
A delegation of BNP lawmakers yesterday met Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at the parlia-
ment building asking for her cooperation in getting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia "freed from her Gulshan residence”.
The Speaker assured the BNP parliamentary party delegation of talking to relevant authorities about the matter.
Later in the day, she enquired State Minister for Home Shamsul HaqueTuku about the matter over the telephone. Tuku told her that Khaleda was not confined to her home, parliament secretariat sources quoted him as saying.
He claimed that Khaleda's security was their first priority. In a press release, the Parliament Secretariat said the Speaker also called the inspector general of police.
The IGP told the Speaker that necessary and strict security measures were in place around Khaleda's home following "an evaluation of the entire situation and for the sake of her security".
The Speaker requested the IGP to make sure the opposition leader did not face any obstacles while providing her with the highest security.
Law enforcers apparently confined the BNP chief to her home since December 28, a day before the opposition's "march for democracy" programme in the city.
She was not allowed to attend a family
programme on that night or the "march for democracy" programme on Sunday. Six to eight platoons of police and Rab personnel were deployed there. Law enforcers had also parked five sand-laden trucks blocking both ends of the street on which she lives.
Last night, a riot truck replaced three trucks at one end of the street but two trucks remain on the other end.
Law enforcers also arrested a former BNP MP in front of her house while police freed two vice-chairmen of BNP and a lawmaker after detaining them in front of Khaleda's home.
A delegation of Zia Shishu Academy, mostly children, had gone to Khaleda's home last night but was turned away by the law enforcers.