Sylhet metropolitan BNP boycotts reception for President Mirza Fakhrul

Sylhet metropolitan BNP today (15 September) boycotted a civic reception for President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, with none of its leaders attending the event organised by the Sylhet City Corporation.

The reception was being held at the city corporation building when this report was filed.

Sylhet Metropolitan BNP President Nasim Hossain said the party’s leaders and activists would not attend the reception for various reasons, but declined to disclose them.

“We will not participate in the reception for various reasons. I am not saying the reasons right now. However, we have attended all the other programmes of the president except the reception,” he said.

Metropolitan BNP General Secretary Emdad Hossain Chowdhury said the party and its affiliated organisations boycotted the reception, citing the organisers’ arbitrary conduct and failure to form a civic committee through the proper process.

Several senior BNP leaders also said the metropolitan unit was not consulted before the reception was organised and that the city corporation administrator took the decision unilaterally. They also alleged that BNP leaders were not properly invited.

They further cited an incident during the president’s visit to the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) earlier in the day. A vehicle arranged for BNP leaders did not have the required pass to enter the shrine premises and was stopped by security personnel on the main road, forcing senior leaders to walk to the shrine, they said.

Sylhet City Corporation Administrator Abdul Quiyum Choudhury could not be reached for comment despite attempts to contact him by phone.

However, yesterday (14 September) he had said that the organisers had consulted people from civil society and different sections of the community while preparing for the reception.

This was President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s first visit to Sylhet since taking office.

He arrived at Osmani International Airport from Dhaka at around 11:30am on a US-Bangla Airlines flight and later visited the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) and Hazrat Shah Paran (RA).

Meanwhile, the reception venue experienced a power outage for around 10–15 minutes shortly before 3pm, when the president had yet to arrive.

Mohammad Imam Hossain, chief engineer of the Sylhet office of Bangladesh Power Development Board, said it was not load-shedding.

“There is no question of load-shedding during the president’s programme. It may have happened due to another technical problem,” he said, adding that some low-voltage issues had also been resolved.