‘Bhua, Bhua’ chants follow Quader out of meeting with ex-BCL leaders

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader was jeered at his own event by former leaders of the Chhatra League, the party's student wing, at the AL headquarters in Dhaka today.

Quader had invited around a hundred former leaders at the headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue for a views-exchange meeting that started around 11:00am, but they were soon frustrated as Quader started speaking to the media without exchanging any views with the invitees.

Around 11:45am, a section of the former leaders started shouting and expressing their displeasure, sources with knowledge of the developments said.

"Why are you talking to media without making any conversation with us? If you want to talk to media, why did you invite us?" some of them yelled at Quader, a former BCL president.

Quader then asked who were creating the disturbance and asked them to stop and, as they continued shouting, Quader left the conference room without completing his speech to the media.

As Quader left the conference room on the first floor and was going to his office on the sixth floor, chants of "Bhua, Bhua" from the former BCL leaders rang out.

They took up the chant again when Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, left the party office.

The chaos continued for nearly an hour.

Other top AL leaders present there also left the party headquarters.

Former BCL leaders also criticised AL presidium member Abdur Razzak, who sat beside the party general secretary, as his son allegedly supported the quota reform movement through his Facebook posts.

The BCL former leaders also threw questions about why Razzak was invited for the programme when his son took an anti-government stance.