Dhaka, Nov 2 (IANS) Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country’s main opposition in parliament, has complained of “repression” of its leaders and cadres by the government while briefing foreign diplomats and donor agency representatives stationed here.
At a tea party it hosted Sunday as part of the preparations for the organisation’s national council meeting scheduled for next month, its leaders justified boycott of parliament for the last nine months. They said no important issue was being discussed there.

Representatives of 25 countries and donor agencies, including the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, European Union, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Morocco, China, and Spain were present, The Daily Star said Monday.

BNP is headed by Begum Khaleda Zia, two-term former prime minister (1991-96 and 2001-06) who is also designated the leader of the opposition.

She was not present to brief the diplomats.

Zia, as per media reports, has been saying that the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which took office in January, was reversing the previous Zia government’s “nationalist” policies and was “surrendering to foreign forces”.

The BNP plans to invite foreign guests including prominent global personalities as observers to its national council meeting that will be held in the capital, according to party leaders.

A diplomat asked a BNP leader why the national party council was being held after a 16-year gap, and about how the party was run, the newspaper said quoting an unnamed source.

Reaching out to foreign missions is frequently resorted to by the party in opposition in Bangladesh. It is much to the chagrin of the one in power that berates the diplomatic corps, alleging “interference in our internal affairs”.

Zia has in the recent past addressed letters to foreign missions, and a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, protesting the latter’s plans to build a dam at Tipaimukh over Barak river in northeastern India.