Properties worth Tk50 lakh were damaged and looted during 7 December raid at Nayapaltan office: BNP

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has said that the party headquarters in the capital's Nayapaltan incurred property damage and looting worth Tk50 lakh during the police raid on 7 December -  two days before their final divisional rally.

"The damaged and looted property costs approximately Tk50,82,500," BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said during a press conference held at the party's chairperson's political office in Gulshan on Sunday (18 December).

"Police on 7 December ignored the general law of holding the owner and neutral persons as witnesses while raiding an office or house. The ruthless cruelty and barbaric treatment of BNP men by the forces and people of the ruling unelected government have not only unveiled its undemocratic, authoritarian and anti-people disposition but also dishonoured the month of victory," he added.

The BNP leader also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the party's secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas, along with the withdrawal of all cases against the party's arrested leaders and activists.

BNP Standing Committee members Nazrul Islam Khan, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Selima Rahman, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and others were present at the press conference.

On 8 December night, authorities said BNP can reopen its Nayapaltan party office from 9 December morning, however, they didn't allow anyone to enter the area until 11 December morning.

Some BNP leaders led by party organising secretary and acting secretary Syed Emran Saleh Prince went to its Nayapaltan office on 11 December at noon and entered the office with some lawyers and journalists around 1:15pm. Later, they inspected the whole office.

Talking to the reporters, BNP Office Secretary Imran Saleh Prince alleged that law enforcers vandalised the party's head office in Nayapaltan in the name of conducting a drive.

"The police vandalised the furniture and valuables of the office. They also seized the office computers and other equipment," he added.