237 arches to greet home minister!

Awami League lawmaker Nizam Uddin Hajari yesterday gave Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan a lavish welcome in Feni on the minister's way to Khagrachhari on a two-day visit there.

Hajari put up over 237 arches on a 27-kilometre stretch of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, from Duttashar in Comilla to Dhumghat bridge in Feni, to welcome the minister to the district, the MP's personal assistant Arafatul Huq Babu told The Daily Star last night.

Also the general secretary of Feni AL, Hajari, however, told this correspondent that local AL men set up over 300 arches, each costing around Tk 9,000, to express their love for the minister.

Visiting the road, a correspondent found that large banners of the home minister, Hajari and AL leader Alauddin Nasim, also a former protocol officer of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, were hanging from the arches.

There were also photos of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the PM, but those were too small to be noticed from a distance.

The minister's motorcade made a stopover at Feni Circuit House for over two hours from 10:15am, Babu said.

The lawmaker said many “enthusiastic” leaders and activists of AL stood on both sides of the road and showered flower petals on the minister's motorcade when it was crossing Feni.

According to an aide of the MP, the arches would be there till the minister returns to Dhaka today. 

Speaking at a meeting with Feni district and upazila AL leaders at the circuit house, Asaduzzaman thanked party men for the reception accorded to him, meeting sources said.

The minister lauded Hajari for his assistance in maintaining law and order in the district. He also thanked the MP for making sure that no party rebels filed nominations for mayoral posts in Feni, Parshuram and Dagonbhuiyan municipalities.

At the meeting, AL mayor hopefuls Nizam Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury and Haji Alauddin from Feni and Parshuram municipalities separately showed party's nomination papers to the minister.

The two are set to get elected uncontested as their rivals from the BNP were disqualified from running in the polls.

The minister left Feni for Khagrachhari around 1:00pm.

After reaching the hill district, he attended a wedding ceremony and inaugurated Ramgor Police Station. He is scheduled to hold a views-exchange meeting today before leaving for Dhaka, reports our correspondent.

Hajari, a former mayor of Feni Municipality, hit the headlines after the gruesome murder of Phulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haque in May last year. Different media pointed the finger at him for the killing.

Feni Jubo League leader Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan had filed a writ petition with the High Court claiming that the lawmaker, elected uncontested from Feni-2 constituency in the last year's national election, had resorted to forgery to get early release from jail and take part in the polls.

Quoting a newspaper report, the petitioner said a Chittagong court had sentenced Hajari to 10 years' imprisonment in an arms case on August 16, 2000. He surrendered to the court on September 14, 2000, and was sent to Chittagong jail.

But he was in jail for only five years and was released on December 1, 2005, Shakhawat claimed, adding that Hajari was supposed to be behind bars until September 13, 2010, and he was not supposed to be eligible for running in any parliamentary polls before September, 2015.

Two High Court judges felt embarrassed to hear the petition.

A correspondent from Feni contributed to this report.