Central BNP team's failed tour of Sylhet division
Ilyas-led faction to boycott today's meet in Sylhet: Team left Habiganj amid clashes between factions, refused in Sunamganj as 'seasonal bird'
A team of central BNP leaders will visit Sylhet today and is scheduled to hold a meeting with leaders of district, city and other units here.
But a faction led by district BNP convener M Ilyas Ali has already expressed their 'dissatisfaction over composition of the team' and is likely to boycott the meeting, party sources here said.
Some leaders of the faction have raised allegations against the team members that they served against the interest of the party during its 'crisis period', the party insiders said.
The 18-mmenber central team led by BNP Joint Secretary General Prof Abdul Mannan is on a tour of the division since Sunday to look into organisational problems. It will submit reports to the central committee by October 18.
BNP in Sylhet is dogged by intra-party feud for long, especially since the 1/11 changeover.
Yesterday, the team sat at a meeting with leaders of BNP and its front organsiations.
At the meeting held at Sunamganj Press Club auditorium, local leaders lodged complaints against the former (expelled) district president former lawmaker Nozir Hossain and general secretary former lawmaker Kolim Uddin Ahmed Milon. They demanded immediate scrapping of the committee. The meeting lasted for about eight hours from 10-30 am.
Talking to this correspondent, some leaders of Sylhet district BNP said, the team is coming without giving prior information.
Deputy leader of the team, former whip Fazlul Haque Aspia, however denied their allegations and said, city and district bodies were informed in time and asked to communicate with upazila committees.
However, the team faced an embarrassing situation in Habiganj on Sunday as rival JCD and BNP factions clashed with each other in their presence. The team had to leave Habiganj keeping things hanging.
ON Monday, the team held a meeting with Moulvibazar district BNP committee, where a faction remained absent.
Ali Ahmed, a member of Sylhet district convening committee, said, “We have no confidence on the team members since they all are known as reformists and they had no role for the party at its crucial moments after 1/11”.
“We will not accept those seasonal birds”, he added.
Sunamganj district BNP general secretary Kolim Uddin Ahmed Milon, who remained absent from yesterday's meeting told the Daily Star, “We will make our position clear to the central committee after sitting with upazila committees after acting chief of district committee Nasir Uddin Chowdhury returns from abroad”, Milon said. , Nasir Uddin is also a former lawmaker.
In another move days ago, a team sent by the central committee held meetings with BNP leaders in Sylhet, but the pro-Ilyas faction boycotted that also, attended by pro-Saifur men.
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