Plainclothes police arrested BNP’s newly appointed Joint Secretary General Aslam Chowdhury from the capital city on Sunday afternoon for his alleged involvement in an oust-government plot.

 

Earlier on the day, police authorities had announced that he would be arrested wherever he is seen.

 

Members of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested the BNP leader from his vehicle around 6:45pm in the city’s Khilkhet area, UNB reports quoting DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam.

 

Aslam was arrested at Khilkhet on his way to Narayanganj along with one of his accomplices and driver, police sources said.

 

The arrest was made hours after Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Iqbal Bahar said there was an order so that Aslam Chowdhury cannot leave the country and he will be arrested whenever he will be found.

 

Recently, a Bangla daily ran a series of reports where it was alleged that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was involved in hatching a plot to topple the AL-led government by joining forces with an Israeli politician in New Delhi early this month.

 

But, Aslam denied any conspiracy against the government although he admitted to meeting Safadi in a tea party in India.

 

Earlier on Tuesday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said they have enough information about BNP’s meeting with Mossad. “If those are put together, the government ‘can ban BNP overnight.”

 

He had also said: “We’ve information that they (BNP) are trying to portray Bangladesh as a fanatic state and convince the Israeli intelligence agency that its relations with Israel will improve if BNP comes to power.”

 

Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir brushed aside the allegation, saying “We want to equivocally say BNP has full support to Palestinian people’s struggle for their rights and sovereignty. We’ve repeatedly talked in favour of it at different forums and in the United Nations.”

 

Quoting party insiders, a local daily said that in the face of strong criticism from the party's policymakers, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Tuesday warned Aslam that action would be taken against him if he repeated such acts in future.