Special Correspondent
A Dhaka court on Thursday granted police eight days to question each of five BNP leaders, including three Standing Committee members in two cases.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rezaul Karim rejected their bail petition and gave police five days in one case and three days in the other case.
Three BNP Standing Committee members, an advisor and an aide of party chairperson Khaleda Zia were produced in the court around 10.30am.
Police arrested Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Mia on Nov 8, hours after the Opposition alliance declared the third long strike in as many weeks.
Later in the wee hours of Saturday, police arrested BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Advisor Abdul Awal Mintoo and Special Assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas.
Showing the five BNP leaders arrested in two cases – attack on police and explosions in Kamalapur during Nov 5 shutdown and vandalism on Sept 24 in front of Motijheel Ideal School and College – police on Saturday produced them before the court.
State counsels sought police custody for 20 days each for five leaders in two cases – 10 days in each case.
Meanwhile, BNP leaders Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Md Salauddin have been implicated in a case concerning the torching of a passenger bus at Matuail in Dhaka.
Nine people, including an Eden College student, had suffered burn injuries when the bus they were travelling on was set on fire on Tuesday.
The driver of the bus, Nekbar Ali, filed a case with the Jatrabarhi Police Station against 12 persons. But Khoka and Salauddin were not among the accused.
However, they had been named as instigators of the horrific attack, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Senior Assistant Commissioner Md Minhazul Islam said.
Although their names do not figure among those accused, they are believed to be included in the charge-sheet.
Former Dhaka Mayor Khoka had earlier been implicated as an instigator in another case filed with the Sutrapur Police Station for setting fire to a human hauler.
However, three woman lawmakers of the opposition BNP were freed after initial detention by police on Wednesday, the last day of the 84-hour Opposition strike.
The police detained BNP MPs Shammi Akter, Nilofar Chowdhury Moni and Rasheda Begum Hira while they were entering the BNP’s Naya Paltan head office around 2pm. The three were whisked away in a police vehicle.
Later all the three had been released after they were taken to Shahbagh’s Hotel Ruposhi Bangla intersection.
Source: Weekly Holiday
