| Submit your comments on this article |
| Bangladesh |
| Khaleda evicted |
| 2010-11-14 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Capping a long-drawn-out drama, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday left her Dhaka cantonment residence and claimed the government had forced her out. The news sent the muscle of the main opposition party into an orgy of violence in the capital and elsewhere. They vandalised at least 100 vehicles and torched around a dozen. Some 80 people were maimed in festivities between BNP supporters and police across the country. The law enforcers jugged some 50 party workers. The party enforces a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal today to protest the "eviction" of its chairperson. It said the way the government made the former prime minister leave her house was "illegal and unprecedented", as the matter was awaiting a hearing at the Supreme Court. The army, however, maintained that Khaleda had voluntarily vacated the house. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the BNP chief did it out of respect for the High Court order that asked the government to allow her a month's time to vacate the Shaheed Mainul Road house. The time expired on Friday night. The ruling Awami League said the government or the party had no role to play in this regard. Briefing journalists at her Gulshan office at 7:15pm, a weeping Khaleda said, "I was evicted from my house. I was dragged out and forced to get in the car." She added she was harassed, humiliated and ashamed by the way she was treated. After the briefing, she moved into her brother Shamim Eskander's Gulshan residence. Some of her household items had already been shifted there. Khaleda had been living in the cantonment house for 38 years since the days when her husband Ziaur Rahman was deputy chief of the army. After the liquidation of president Zia in 1981, the then army chief HM Ershad had allotted her the 2.72-acre house at a token price. In April last year, the Cantonment Board declared the allotment illegal and issued a notice asking her to leave the house. Khaleda's lawyers filed a petition challenging the legality of the notice. On October 13, the High Court declared the notice legal and asked Khaleda to vacate the residence. It directed the government to give her 30 days' time for that. The BNP chief's counsels went to the Supreme Court for permission to file an appeal against the HC ruling. The apex court is scheduled to hear the leave-to-appeal petition on November 29. BNP sources said the army authorities on Friday night communicated a message to their chairperson, saying she should leave the house in the morning. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 drama queen |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-11-14 10:20 |