Oikyafront Rally: Cops go after BNP men

Centring yesterday's Jatiya Oikyafront rally, police allegedly picked up over 250 BNP leaders and activists in Sylhet city in the last two days. 

Law enforcers detained around 200 people after the rally at Registrar's Office field in the city's Bandarbazar. BNP chairperson's adviser Khandakar Abdul Muktadir was among them, said Sylhet district BNP President Abul Kaher Shamim. 

He added that police arrested 68 more party leaders and activists on Tuesday night. 

Police yesterday produced the 68 before a Sylhet court showing them arrested in different sabotage cases filed with six police stations in Sylhet metropolitan area. The court sent them to jail.

Asked about the BNP's allegation of detaining its leaders and activists yesterday evening, Golam Kawsar Dastagir, assistant commissioner of Kotwali zone of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said, “We are picking up some people for questioning.”

BNP men were also arrested in Chattogram and Satkhira.

The law enforcers in Chattogram arrested 14 BNP leaders and activists from a residential hotel in Amtal area on Tuesday night while they were holding a meeting ahead of the next meeting of the Jatiya Oikyafront, the newly floated alliance of the BNP and several other parties, scheduled for Saturday.

The alliance is, however, yet to get the Chattogram Metropolitan Police's permission for holding the rally at the city's Laldighi Maidan. 

Mirsarai upazila BNP joint conveners Shahidul Islam Chowdhury, Manjurul Haque, Md Abdur Rahim, North district BNP's former joint convener Abdul Awal are among the arrestees.

Nirmalendu Bikash Chawkrabarty, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution), said the arrestees were sent to jail after being produced before a court.

According to the statement of the case filed with Kotwali Police Station under the Special Powers Act, police raided Hotel Safina around 8:30pm on Tuesday and arrested the 14 on charges of planning sabotage.

In primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted that they were “hatching a conspiracy to tarnish the image of the government and deteriorate law and order by damaging public properties” as part of their protest for arresting BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and General Secretary of city unit BNP Abul Hashem Bakkar, the case statement said.

Bakkar and eight others, including Mahbubur Rahman Shamim, BNP central organising secretary, were arrested from different parts of the city on Monday.

In Satkhira, police arrested 65 people, 12 of them BNP and Jamaat men, in 24 hours ending 6:00pm yesterday.

Azam Khan, inspector of Satkhira DB police, said the arrestees were wanted in cases filed with different police stations of the district.

Meanwhile, a Cumilla court rejected the bail prayer of Monirul Haque Chowdhury, a member of Jatiya Oikyafront coordination committee and also BNP chairperson's adviser, in an arson case filed in 2015. Eight passengers of a bus were burnt to death after a petrol bomb was hurled at the vehicle in Chauddagram's Jagmohonpur.

Monirul was sent to jail as he appeared before the court with a bail plea after the expiry of his interim bail granted by the High Court, said his lawyer Nazmus Sadat.

He is a BNP nomination seeker in Cumilla-6 and Cumilla-10 constituencies.

Our staff correspondent in Chattogram, our correspondents in Sylhet, Satkhira and Cumilla contributed to this report.