The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

BNP will join in dialogue in a free atmosphere as soon as the government releases Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman, said BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday after meeting the detained party chief at the makeshift special jail.

BNP secretary general said that Khaleda had expressed interest in joining the dialogue process.

Emerging from the meeting, Delwar told reporters that BNP wants to participate in the dialogue and general election after the release of Khaleda and Tarique.

Delwar and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed met Khaleda from 12:45pm to 3:30pm in the makeshift jail after she was granted bail in the Barapukuria coal mine graft case yesterday.

This is for the first time Delwar was allowed to meet his party chief since she was arrested on September 3 last year.

"BNP is a pro-election party and wants to join the dialogue preceding the holding of the general election," he said.

But, he added, Khaleda must be freed and Tarique sent abroad for better treatment. Delwar said during the meeting, Begum Zia wondered as to why her eldest son Tarique has not yet been set free.

"Not as BNP chairperson but as a mother I demand that Tarique be immediately sent abroad for treatment," Begum Zia was quoted as saying.

The immediate-past PM conveyed her greetings to leaders and workers of the BNP-led 4-party alliance for successfully observing the human-chain program on Wednesday.

Earlier, A High Court bench granted former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia four months' bail yesterday in the Barapukuria coalmine case.

The HC bench of justices Sharifuddin Chaklader and Imdadul Haque Azad also asked the government and the Anticorruption Commission to explain in six weeks why the case should not be quashed.

ACC assistant director MD Shamsul Haque filed the case with Shahbagh Police Station against 16 people including Khaleda Zia and 10 ministers on Feb 26.

The same bench has granted bail to former ministers Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar and Motiur Rahman Nizami in the same case.