Pro-BNP lawyers and freedom fighters met the BNP chairperson at her Gulshan residence last night, though the BNP earlier alleged that police were not allowing anyone to enter her house.
A delegation of lawyers led by Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, vice chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council, entered the BNP chief's residence around 8:00pm and held an hour-long meeting with her.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia told the lawyers that the opposition's ongoing movement would continue until the election is held under a non-party government, Mahbub later told reporters.
They also discussed with the leader of the opposition the legal options for getting the arrested BNP leaders released, he said.
Later, a team of freedom fighters led by Shahjahan Omar, adviser to the BNP chief, held a 40-minute meeting with Khaleda.
Earlier, BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed alleged that the government disrupted food and water supply to the BNP chief's residence, a claim trashed by the authorities.
Talking to reporters at the BNP's Nayapaltan office on the first day of the 84-hour hartal, Rizvi claimed that none was allowed to enter her house either.
As his attention was drawn to Khaleda's meetings with pro-BNP professionals at her Gulshan residence on Saturday night, Rizvi changed his stance and said police "sometimes" barred BNP leaders from entering the house.
When reporters told Rizvi that according to their knowledge, water supply to the opposition leader's house was working fine, Rizvi replied, "I am talking about a particular point of time when the connection was cut off."
A top official of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), however, refuted the allegation outright.
Talking to The Daily Star last night on condition of anonymity, the Wasa official said any disruption of water supply would require digging of a road and everyone could see if any such step was really taken.
"Besides, if any technical glitch had occurred, the whole area would have been affected, and people would have complained to us. We have not received any complaint."
Rizvi also termed the increased presence of law enforcers around Khaleda's residence ''the beginning of maximum harassment of the opposition leader.''
"I don't know how to define this situation -- confinement or house arrest,” he said.
On the opening of sale of nomination papers by the ruling Awami League, he said the government was moving forward with its plan to hold a "stage-managed election" in the country.
FOUR BNP LEADERS IN KASHIMPUR JAIL
Detained BNP leaders Moudud Ahmad, MK Anwar, Rafiqul Islam Miah and BNP chairperson's adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo were shifted to Kashimpur prison from Dhaka Central Jail on Saturday night. They were arrested on Friday night and early Saturday.