Police on Monday prevented BNP men from assembling on roads to greet their Chairperson Khaleda Zia on her way to Sylhet to visit shrines.
Police dispersed everyone who tried to gather on Khaleda's way to welcome her.
The BNP Chief's apparent move to instill inspiration into her party men by taking roads for her visit also faced demonstrations, including a 'sandal procession', from the ruling Awami League men.
Members of law enforcement agencies remained vigilant at different points of Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Chittagong highways.
They reportedly arrested at least 27 BNP leaders and activists including some top leaders of local units of the party as they tried to assemble to greet Khaleda at different points in Narayanganj, Narsingdi and Kishoreganj.
Khaleda with a motorcade of 35 cars including journalists started for Sylhet at 9.15am from her Gulshan home to pray at the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal and Hazrat Shah Paran two-day ahead of the verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust Graft Case.
As she was heading towards Sylhet police prevented her party men from getting closer to her motorcade to greet her at different points in Narayanganj, Narsingdi and Kishoreganj, our correspondents reported.
In Narayanganj, when Khaleda's motorcade was passing Siddirganj area, BNP's City Unit Vice-President Advocate Shakhawat Hossain, activists Mainuddin and Anwar Hossain were arrested while trying to greet her.
Apart from them local BNP leader Nazrul Islam Azad, Deputy Joint Secretary for International Affairs, Razib, Salauddin and two others were arrested from Pachmukhi area under Araihazar upazila.
They were locked in a clash with police as they barred them from assembling to greet the BNP Chief. Police fired 20 to 25 bullets to disperse them.
Police also foiled the attempt of Narayanganj district BNP General Secretary and his followers' attempt to assemble on roads to greet Khaleda. Two party activists were held from the spot.
Narayanganj Superintendent of Police Moinul Haque said they had arrested 10 people but he did not disclose their names.
While passing Narsingdi's Bhelanagar area around 11.30am, Awami League men tried to obstruct Khaleda's motorcade. They brought out a procession shouting slogans for 'boat', the election symbol of AL.
At one stage they displayed shoes to the passing motorcade. The rowdy men even swooped on one car as the motorcade tried to leave the area in a hurry, according to BNP.
Since the morning, BNP leaders and activists assembled in the area while the men of Chhatra League and Jubo League also assembled against them. When tension mounted, police intervened.
Members of law enforcement agencies, however, snatched banners, festoons from pro-BNP lawyers assembled by the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway.
Police arrested 13 BNP men but later freed district BNP Senior Vice-President Sultan Uddin Mollah, leader Sanaullah Miah, City Unit President Golam Kabir kamal, Our Narsingdi Correspondent reported.
Police also charged baton while driving away hundreds of BNP supporters assembled at Narsingdi's Kamartek. Khaleda stopped there for some time and talked with some female activists.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged that police drove away BNP leaders and activists from Narayanganj's Sonargaon, Narsingdi's Belanagar and Kamartek.
The party men were made confined to narrow lanes so that they cannot come out on the highways to greet the former prime minister, he said.
Khaleda reached Sylhet in the afternoon. She took rest at Sylhet circuit house and in the evening visited the two shrines and prayed there.
During her visit, a number of BNP men greeted her. They chanted slogans that they would resist Khaleda's jail as the graft case verdict scheduled to be declared on February 8.
