Khaleda urges CEC to hold talks with Delwar

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Detained BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia Thursday sent a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC) urging him to hold dialogue with the BNP secretary general she nominated, lawyers said Thursday.
"The letter has been handed over to the jail authorities to deliver to the CEC. A prisons official in charge of the special jail (where Khaleda is detained) said it would be sent as per the rules," lawyer Sanaulla Mia told reporters after meeting the BNP chairperson Thursday.
But DIG (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told bdnews24.com that he did not receive any such letter yet.
Barrister Nawshad Zamir accompanied Sanaulla Mia to the special jail, where they discussed GATCO and Niko cases with Khaleda.
They also met BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, nominated as secretary general by Khaleda, before she was arrested on September 3 with alleged ties to corruption.
Nawshad Zamir claimed that Khaleda termed illegal the October 29 meeting of the BNP standing committee at former finance minister M Saifur Rahman's Gulshan home.
"Dialogue or any kind of discussion will be held under the leadership of Khandaker Delwar," the lawyer quoted Khaleda as saying.
Infighting over leadership cleaved the party into two factions, with both claiming to be in the mainstream. Several attempts to hold the party together fell apart as both factions attached conditions for unity.