Over 100 leaders and workers, including Rizvi, Aman, Khokon, and Annie, were detained

There are claims that after the violent altercation between party members and police on Wednesday afternoon in the capital's Nayapaltan neighborhood, key BNP leaders were successively detained by police.

More than 100 leaders and workers of BNP including the party's senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, BNP chairperson's adviser and Dhaka City South convener Abdus Salam, BNP chairperson's adviser and Dhaka City North convener Aman Ullah Aman, joint secretary general Khairul Kabir Khokon, publicity secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, and BNP chairperson's personal assistant Shimul Biswas were arrested by police.

Police arrested the BNP leaders entering forcibly into the central office of the party and searching there. Besides, more than 100 leaders and workers who got stuck inside the party office during the clash were also arrested by police.

Earlier, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir sat down in front of the party's central office being failed to enter the office.

Fakhrul alleged that police deliberately clashed with his party's leaders and activists to foil the BNP's December 10 rally in Dhaka. They lobbed teargas shells and fired bullets on the BNP leaders and workers. "Police forcibly entered our party office and arrested our leaders and workers," he said.
 
Earlier, police arrested BNP's publicity secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, and Swecchasebak Dal's former general secretary Abdul Kadir Bhuiyan Jewel and BNP's central executive committee member Aminul Islam along with dozens of other leaders and workers. Following the arrest police took some of them away by prison vans and some by microbuses.

On Wednesday afternoon, police lobbed teargas shells and sound grenades to disperse the BNP leaders and workers who were assembled in front of the party central office at Nayapaltan. The entire Nayapaltan and its adjoining areas turned into a battleground.

Tension was mounting for the last few days regarding the stalemate over the selection of venue for BNP’s December 10 rally. Party activists were gathering almost every day outside BNP's Nayapaltan office and conducting political showdowns.

The presence of party workers increased on Wednesday. To keep the situation under control, more than a thousand police members were deployed in the area.

Around 3:00pm, the party activists gathered in front of the office and started chanting slogans. Sensing that the situation could be turning volatile, police asked the party members to leave the area immediately. This resulted in a heated argument and at one point, police started to beat the activists with batons to disperse them.