Journalist Shaukat Mahmood, vice chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been expelled from the party.
BNP Media Cell Member Shairul Kabir Khan confirmed the information on Tuesday.
A member of the party's standing committee said that Farhad Mazhar and Shaukat Mahmood activated the 10-year-old organization National Committee for Civil Rights (translates as Jatiya Insaf Kayem Committee in Bangla) on March 16 at a five-star hotel in the capital.
The sudden activation of the committee once again created discomfort in the top leadership of BNP. Senior party leaders also criticized Shaukat Mahmood for this move.
The standing committee member mentioned: “Shaukat has been excluded from the party by the decision of Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of BNP. Ahead of the upcoming 12th National Assembly elections, BNP has kept some leaders of the party under close surveillance and Shaukat Mahmood was one of them.”
In a press release sent to the media around 3pm on Tuesday, Taiful Islam Tipu, assistant secretary of BNP, said that based on specific allegations of indulging in activities against party discipline, according to the decision of the BNP National Standing Committee, the vice chairman of the party, Shaukat Mahmood, who had been appointed as the primary member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been expelled from all posts.
On March 16, some former army officers, teachers and politicians attended the banquet of “Insaf Committee” at Banani hotel. Although no BNP leader was present there, close associates to the party Mahmudur Rahman Manna and Oli Ahmed were present. A few other leaders were supposed to attend but they avoided the banquet.
According to the source at the meeting, some members expressed their disagreement about Shaukat's expulsion.
Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said regarding the standing committee meeting on Tuesday morning that the meeting expressed deep grief over the death of 21 people in the bus accident at Shibchar end of Padma bridge on Sunday. In the meeting, prayers were sought for the souls of the deceased and condolence was extended to the family members.
