2018 Arson case: 33 BNP men face arrest warrants
A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants against 33 leaders and activists of the BNP and its front organisations after cancelling their bail in an arson case.
The 33 include former Jubo Dal president Saiful Alam Nirob.
The case was filed against 183 BNP leaders and activists with Ramna Police Station, following an arson attack in front of the Kakrail Church on February 8, 2018, when a lower court convicted and sentenced BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Of the accused, three are in jail and 109 were on bail.
The court yesterday scrapped the bail of 33 of the accused as they were absent during yesterday's hearing.
The defence lawyers submitted time petitions showing different reasons for their clients' absence, but the court dismissed those.
BNP leader Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal; BNP leader Mirza Abbas' wife Afroza Abbas; and BNP Organising Secretary Shama Obayed, now on bail, were present at the hearing.
Meanwhile, the High Court yesterday granted six weeks' anticipatory bail to 438 BNP leaders and activists from 12 districts in 27 cases filed on various charges.
The cases were filed in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Jamalpur, Meherpur, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Munshiganj, Tangail, Bogura, Pabna, Barishal and Netrakona.
The charges ranged from vandalism to obstructing police from discharging duties during the party's ongoing divisional rallies.
Two separate HC benches granted the anticipatory bail after hearing 29 separate bail petitions filed by the accused. One of the benches was of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Bashir Ullah, while the other was of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Aminul Islam.
The benches also asked the accused to surrender before the lower courts concerned in six weeks, Kayser Kamal, lawyer for the accused petitioners, told The Daily Star.
He said the cases were filed against the BNP men on false charges in order to harass them.
COUNTRYWIDE DRIVES CONTINUE
On December 1, police started a 15-day special drive across the country "to ward off any untoward incident ahead of the Victory Day".
BNP leaders have been alleging that the drive is to arrest its leaders and activists to thwart its December 10 rally in Dhaka.
Several thousand people, including many BNP men, have already been arrested in the drive.
The media and public relations centre of the Police Headquarters, which has been providing information about the number of arrests and cases to the media, could not provide any information about how many people were picked up in the 24 hours till 6:00pm yesterday when this report was filed.
A media and PR officer around 8:30pm said they were yet to receive the information in this regard.