Blocking access to video chat tool Skype aims to stop Tarique Rahman from screening possible candidates, says the BNP.
Several officials of the International Internet Gateway or IIG operators have confirmed that they had blocked access to the site and its app for mobile devices on instructions from the telecoms regulator.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), however, denies having issued any such instructions.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told the media on Monday that they had come to know about the BTRC blocking Skype.
“This move has only one target, which is preventing Tarique Rahman from interviewing the aspirants,” he said, urging the authorities to unblock Skype.
Internet connections to party chief Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office, where the BNP is conducting the interviews, were also cut off, he claimed citing officials at the office.
Tarique has been staying with his family in London since 2008 when he left Bangladesh after his release from jail on parole during the military-controlled caretaker government.
He has been sentenced up to life in jail for money laundering, corruption and the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League targeting the party’s chief Sheikh Hasina, then the leader of the opposition now seeking an unprecedented fourth term as prime minister.
The 50-year old was appointed acting chief of the BNP after his mother and party chief Khaleda Zia was jailed in February for corruption.
The High Court had earlier banned publication of his statement in any form since he is a fugitive from the law.