Led by a Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) magistrate, a huge contingent of armed policemen and plainclothes personnel from different law enforcing agencies levelled the unit offices of ruling BNP's unit-4, Tejgaon units of the BCL and JP on Garden Road.

According to DCC's estate department officials, the eviction team cleared the area to make room for a way out of the country's largest shopping complex Bashundhara City, which is scheduled to be inaugurated on August 5.

As the DCC bulldozer and policemen entered the narrow lane at about 2:15pm, dozens of BNP adherents blocked their way, locals said.

"We have helped Falu Bhai (Dhaka-10 lawmaker Mosaddek Ali Falu) win the recent election and we'll not allow you to demolish our office, which was established in 1992," local BNP leader Rafiqul Islam told the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station before the DCC team went into action.

JP activists 'mildly' protested the demolition drive. However, no BCL activist was present during the incident, locals added.

More than 50 ruling party leaders led by Helaluddin, vice-president of BNP's Ward No. 39, chanted slogans against the complex's owners and lay down on the street in front of the bulldozer to revoke the DCC drive. Police, however, cleared the road without using any force and the demolition work began at around 3:00pm.

The assistant estate officer said, "Although the DCC has postponed all eviction drives in the city for an indefinite period due to the recent flood, we had to clear the spot today as Bashundhara City would be inaugurated on August 5."