The law enforcement agencies have continued their crackdown on the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party with more arrests made and more cases filed. Also the passing of jail sentences on the BNP leaders and activists has increased, while many of their bail petitions have been rejected.
The Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on Wednesday sentenced 12 BNP leaders and activists to three years in jail in a violence case filed with the Kotwali police in the capital on charges of violence in 2018.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Wednesday rejected the bail petitions of BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, organising secretary Emran Saleh Prince and party’s media cell convener Zahir Uddin Swapan in two separate cases.
In the 2018 violence case, the court also fined the convicts Tk 5,000 each, in default to suffer three months more in jail.
The convicts are—Anwarul Azim, Haider Ali Babla, Md Alauddin, Shawkat, Md Pervej, Imran Hossain Emu, Sayed Ahmed Rana, Haji Farhad Rana, Arif Hossain Bappy, Fazlul Haque Moni, Haji Md Nazim Uddin and Md Sobhan.
According to the case documents, the police filed the case against them on the charges of committing subversive activities in the Kotwali area to create panic in September 2018.
The police arrested four BNP activists on the charges of exploding crude bombs and arson attacks in at least 21 spots, including the office of the returning officer in Dhaka on November 30.
The arrests were made from Mugda in Dhaka and Gazaria in Munshiganj on Tuesday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police disclosed on Wednesday.
The arrested are Shafiqul Islam, joint convener of Paltan Thana unit Swechchhasebak Dal, volunteers’ wing of the BNP, Sumon Hossain Roni, a former joint convener of the Ward-13 unit BNP, and party activists Ashiqur Rahman Panna and Billal Hossain.
The arrested carried out at least 21 incidents of crude bomb blasts and arson attacks since October 28, said Mahid Uddin, additional commissioner (crime and operations) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, at a press briefing.
He said that their analysis of CCTV footage found that Panna carried crude bombs in a bag and went to the rooftop of The National Board of Revenue building around 3:00pm on November 30.
Panna wore a mask and threw the bombs from the building in front of the returning officer’s office, Mahid said.
Later, he came down from the building empty handed and left the area. Panna admitted during the police interrogation that the bag he carried contained crude bombs.
The office of the Dhaka divisional commissioner, who is also the returning officer for Dhaka district, is in Segunbagicha, next to the NBR building.
November 30 was the last date of submission of nominations for the 2024 national election.
The DMP official said that Panna and Shafiqul were involved in exploding bombs in least seven places including at the RO office and torching two buses.
Roni and Billal were involved in crude bomb explosions at 12 spots, he said at the briefing.
Mahid said that the DMP force members have so far arrested 34 people red-handed as they were carrying out subversive activities.
In a virtual briefing on Wednesday, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged that the crackdown on the party has grown intense.
The police have been terrorising and harassing the family members of the BNP leaders and activists, while some of them cannot be traced after the law enforcers have picked them.
Rizvi said that another 360 leaders and activists of the party were arrested across the country in the past 24 hours until Wednesday evening.
With the fresh arrests, at least 19,860 leaders and activists of the party have been held since the party’s foiled grand rally of October 28 with 552 cases filed, according to the BNP.
The disposal of what the BNP called political cases has increased after prime minister Sheikh Hasina, at a programme on October 21, instructed to take prompt measures for quick disposal of the cases related to arson attacks ahead of the election slated for January 7.
Since the prime minister’s instruction, over 600 BNP leaders and activists have been convicted in different violence cases across the country, according to lawyers and court sources.
Regarding bail petitions of the senior BNP leaders on Wednesday, Judge Faisal Atiq Bin Kader of the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge›s Court of Dhaka rejected the bail petitions of BNP leaders Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Zahir Uddin Swapan in a case filed with the Paltan police, accusing them of killing a policeman during BNP’s grand rally on October 28.
Earlier on the day, defence lawyer Joynal Abedin Mesbah submitted the bail petitions for the three BNP leaders.
The DMP’s Detective Branch arrested Amir Khasru from his Gulshan residence on November 2, while Zahir Uddin Swapan was arrested from another house in Gulshan the same day.
On November 3, the court placed them on a six-day remand to be sent to jail on November 9 after remand.
According to the case document, constable Amirul Islam Parvez was beaten to death in a clash during the BNP’s grand rally on October 28. Later, sub-inspector Masuk Mia of Paltan Model Police Station filed a murder case against 164 BNP people including BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
The same court also rejected the bail plea of BNP organising secretary Emran Saleh Prince, who is currently in jail in a case filed with the Paltan police on the charges of snatching firearms of police and vandalising the Liberation War Museum of Bangladesh Police during clashes on October 28.
New Age
