41 BNP leaders served show cause notices for contesting Sylhet city polls

BNP has served show cause notices on 41 candidates for participating in the Sylhet City Corporation elections in defiance of the party decision to boycott the city polls.

Of the candidates, one is contesting for mayoral post, 36 for general councillor posts and four for reserved women councillor posts, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi issued the show-cause notices last night, which was circulated by Sylhet district BNP.

Independent mayoral candidate Salah Uddin Rimon, incumbent councillors Farhad Chowdhury Shamim, Syed Tawfiqul Hadi, Nazrul Islam Munim and ABM Zillur Rahman; and incumbent reserved seat councillor and president of Sylhet city unit of Mahila Dal Roksana Begum Shahnaz are among the candidates.

Sylhet District Mohila Dal President Shaleha Kobir Shepi and Sylhet District Chhatra Dal President Altaf Hussain Sumon are also on the list.

The show-cause notices read that BNP is in a movement demanding election under a caretaker government, protesting the party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's jail sentence, and killings, forced disappearances and torture of BNP men and harassment of 50 lakh party activists by filing "false" cases against them.

The party decided not to participate in any election under this government. But being BNP men, these candidates violated the party decision, the notice stated.

Emdadul Hossain Chowdhury, general secretary of the Sylhet city unit of BNP, said, "All 41 are given 24 hours to respond to the show cause notices. If they fail, stern action will be taken against them."