Zia\\\'s grave surrounding design partially broken

Unidentified miscreants have partially damaged the surrounding design of the grave of BNP founder and late President Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city while BNP leader Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman termed the incident an attack on the spirit on Liberation War , reports UNB.

Mizanur Rahman, a sweeper of the grave, said he found 11 marble plates of the surrounding design of the tomb broken in the morning.

"Like any other day, I came to sweep the grave premises around 6:00 am on Thursday and spotted the damaged marble plates of the grave," he told reporters.

Mizan also said there were 118 marble plates on the surrounding structure of the tomb.

BNP chairperson's media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan told the news agency that unidentified criminals damaged the design of the grave with an ulterior motive.

He said the incident might have taken place some time on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, a team of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar thana, led by officer-in-charge (OC) Ganesh Gopal Biswas visited the spot around 12 noon.

The OC informed the officials of the Department of Housing and Public Works about the incident.

An official of the department also arrived at the grave premises around 12:50 pm and asked their two employees--Angur and Tuhin--to fix the broken marbles plates again with glue on the design of the round-shape grave. But, they failed to do the job despite their frantic efforts.

Later, BNP's assistant publicity secretary Imran Saleh Prince and a delegation of Muktijoddha Dal also visited the spot.

Meanwhile, Describing the damage of late president Ziaur Rahman's grave as an attack on the spirit of the Liberation War, senior BNP leader Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman warned on Thursday that they will not tolerate such desecration of a freedom fighter's grave, reports UNB.

"The miscreants have destroyed 11 marble plates of the grave of martyred president Ziaur Rahman. Those who carried out the incident are anti-liberation forces. We strongly denounce such an incident," he said.

Mahbub, a BNP standing committee member, made the remarks while visiting Zia's grave premises around 3:00 pm.

He said, "The criminals dishonoured Ziaur Rahman, a sector commander of the Liberation War, with this attack. With this, they also attacked the spirit of the Liberation War. We want to clearly state that we won't tolerate any type of desecration towards Ziaur Rahman's tomb."

Mahbub, also a former Army Chief, said there is no reason to take the incident lightly as it took place in a high secure and reserved area where police always remain on vigil.

"We demand the government immediately investigate into the incident and mete out punishment of the offenders," the BNP leader added.

Unidentified miscreants have partially damaged the surrounding design of the grave of BNP founder and late President Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city.