Leaders of the Sylhet city unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted a reception hosted by the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) for President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday.

None of the city BNP leaders attended the reception, held at the city corporation premises in the afternoon.

They said they had boycotted only the SCC-organised event over what they described as the “negligence and autocratic behaviour” of SCC Administrator and Sylhet district BNP President Abdul Quiyum Choudhury.

According to sources, no leaders of the Sylhet city BNP were consulted about organising the reception. They alleged that Quiyum arranged the event on his own initiative and failed to properly invite the city BNP leaders.

Sylhet city BNP General Secretary Emdad Hossain Chowdhury said they had not boycotted the president’s programme.

“The President came to Sylhet, and you saw that we received him at the airport. We visited two shrines. We also sat with the president at the Circuit House and held political discussions,” he said.

“We did not attend the SCC event only because of the negligence and autocratic behaviour of the city corporation administrator. We did not boycott the President’s programme; we simply did not go to the city corporation,” he added.

Sylhet city BNP President Nasim Hossain said they had attended all of the President’s other programmes.

“We were present at all of the President’s programmes. We were only absent from the SCC reception. We were not happy with the activities of the city administrator, which is why we did not attend,” he said.

“We do not want to comment further on this because, at the end of the day, we will all move forward together, and this was a programme of the honourable President,” he added.

Attempts to contact SCC Administrator Abdul Quiyum Choudhury for comment were unsuccessful.

The SCC organised the reception as part of President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s visit to Sylhet.

The event was chaired by Abdul Quiyum Choudhury and attended by First Lady Rahat Ara Begum, Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Md GK Gaws, former ambassador Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey, local members of parliament, political leaders, and senior divisional and district administration officials.

Earlier on Tuesday, President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir left Dhaka on a US-Bangla Airlines flight and arrived at Osmani International Airport in Sylhet at around 11:30am.

He was given a guard of honour upon arriving at the Circuit House. He later visited the shrines of Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA) and Hazrat Shah Paran (RA).