Khaleda, 77 other BNP leaders face charges in arson case

Khaleda Zia

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia. — UNB file photo

Police on Monday submitted charge-sheets against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and 77 others in two cases of arson attacks which killed sleeping passengers on a bus at Chauddagram in Comilla.
Chauddagram police sub-inspector Mohammad Ibrahim submitted the charge-sheets to the senior judicial magistrate court of Comilla.
In reaction, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a news briefing in the capital on the day termed the charge-sheet ‘blatant lies’ and a part of the ‘blueprint’ of the government and its ‘masters’.
BNP senior leaders MK Anwar, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Rafiqul Islam Mia and Shaukat Mahmood and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s central leader Abdullah Mohammad Taher are among the accused in the cases.
Rizvi at the briefing alleged that plain-clothes police on Monday again arrested BNP joint secretary general Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel at jail gate soon after he got released completing all legal formalities from higher court.
He said BNP was yet to be officially informed by the law enforcers about the arrest of Sohel.
Rizvi sought intervention of the chief justice in the matter.
During the anti-government movement, on February 3 in 2015, miscreants hurled petrol bomb on a running bus at Miar Bazar at Chauddagram about 2:30am.
At least 20 people were injured in the attack. Among them eight died.
Later, police filed two cases with Chouddagram police in this connection. Khaleda Zia was named as an instigator in both the cases.

Source: New Age