A surpise visit by five top leaders of National Citizen Party to Cox's Bazar staying away from the celebration of the first anniversary of July uprising in Dhaka on Tuesday stirred social media speculation and public curiosity.

The NCP leaders who came to seaside town are NCP's,Chief Coordinator Nasiruddin Patwari, Chief Organiser (North) Sarjis Alam, Chief Organizer (South) Hasnat Abdullah, and senior Joint Member-Secretary Dr Tasnim Zara, her husband and NCP Joint Convenor Khaled Saifullah. Sarjis is being accompanied by his wife.

Speculations have been rife with some media outlets reporting that the NCP delegation was in Cox’s Bazar to meet former US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas. However, Nasiruddin Patwari has dismissed these claims as ‘baseless,’ saying in an audio message that no such meeting took place.

According to Cox’s Bazar police, the NCP leaders are staying at Hotel Sea Pearl in Inani since around noon.

Additional SP (Traffic) Md Jasim Uddin Chowdhury said the visit appears to be personal, and no foreign dignitaries, including Peter Haas, were at the hotel.

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Hotel’s chief security officer, army official (retd) Kamruzzaman said that three rooms were occupied by NCP leaders, and no guest by the name of Peter Haas had checked in.

Still, BNP activists gathered outside the hotel demanding transparency, calling the timing of the visit and secrecy surrounding it ‘suspicious.’