Fakhrul and Abbas given division facilities, DAG tells HC

The attorney general's office today informed the High Court that detained BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas have been given division facilities in jail.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar also placed a letter issued to the HC by the law ministry section concerned during hearing of two writs seeking directives upon prison authorities to give division facilities to Fakhrul and Abbas in jail.

A prisoner is supposed to get a separate room, a bed, a table, a newspaper and some other facilities in jail if he or she is granted division facilities under the jail code.

Bashar also told the HC bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Ali that the division facilities given to Fakhrul and Abbas was executed today and therefore, the writ petitions are ineffective.

The writ petitioners' lawyers requested the HC bench to order the government to produce necessary documents of execution of the division facilities before the court.

The bench then fixed 12:00pm tomorrow for hearing and passing order on this issue.

A section of pro-BNP lawyers including AJ Mohammad Ali, Zainul Abedin, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Bodruddoza Badal, Kayser Kamal and Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal appeared for the writ petitioners during hearing of the petitions.

Earlier in the day, Fakhrul's wife Rahat Ara Begum and Abbas's wife Afroza Abbas submitted the writ petitions to the HC, saying their husbands deserve division facilities in jail under the jail code as they are former lawmakers and ministers.

BNP Secretary General Fakhrul and the party's standing committee member Abbas are now in jail in a case filed over the December-7 clash between police and BNP men in the capital's Nayapaltan area.