Meanwhile, the high-profile arrest of Giasuddin Al-Mamun, a business partner of BNP's Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman, has dealt a severe blow to the morale of the immediate past ruling party loyalists.

Most of the leaders and workers have already gone into hiding to avoid being captured in the ongoing anti-crime drive across the country.

The weeklong drive to catch Mamun that saw success on Wednesday has sent a clear message to the bigwigs that the present interim administration is determined to take action against anybody no matter how influential they might be, said sources within the BNP.

"Everybody knows how close Mamun is to our party chief's family. So, quite understandably, his capture has caused jitters among leaders from grassroots to the top echelons," a mid-level leader told The Daily Star yesterday in return for anonymity.

Tarique Rahman's not going to the Hawa Bhaban on February 1, the day following Mamun's arrest, gave rise to questions among the leaders and workers, the sources said.

However, a person close to him said he was down with a viral fever and that is why he could not go there. He is still in contact with leaders and activists across the country.

In another development, the Anti-Corruption Commission's decision to be tough on the corrupt ones has added to the worries among the BNP rank and file. They fear many of the influential leaders who held different portfolios in the last five years might have to face the music, as corruption allegations against them are rife.

"Not only the then opposition parties but quite a few number of the BNP lawmakers had specifically accused several former ministers of corruption at standing committee meetings and in parliament. But the then government took no heed," said an ex- lawmaker, adding that caretaker government could now act on the basis of those allegations.

Sources said who to be blamed for their ending up in troubled waters has been the question crowding the minds of the workers most. They think the BNP is paying the price for a few senior leaders' role in the last five years.

They alleged that besides coaxing the Election Commission into having a flawed voter list, they [the seniors] had created complexity surrounding the caretaker government chief by increasing the age limit for retirement of the Supreme Court judges.

And all this necessitated the state of the emergency, meaning for the BNP losing its control over the interim government, they added.

Party insiders said the senior and mid-level leaders are blaming each other for the situation. When the liberals think that the hardliners had mislead the party leadership, the hardliners maintain it was rather the 'so-called liberals' who had all together failed to control the situation.

Referring to the BNP chairperson's absence in the oath-taking ceremony of the present chief adviser, a former lawmaker said, "It was a wrong decision as it gave the field-level administration the idea that the party has distanced itself from the interim government."

After handover of power to Iajuddin-led caretaker government, the BNP had assigned three of its senior leaders including Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan to keep in touch with the president. But later some other leaders began interfering in the matters without the party consent and eventually messed things up.

Some senior leaders think that a group of junior leaders led by its senior joint secretary general is responsible for the situation. Allegations of corruption and backing the militants against them clearly point in that direction.

But the young leaders consider the allegations as a conspiracy to damage Tarique's image so that he cannot rise to the apex position within the BNP.