Govt takes hard line against BNP

The government appears to have taken a tough stance against the BNP after Saturday's clashes that turned the heart of the capital into a battlefield.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was sent to jail by a Dhaka court around 10:00pm yesterday.

Detectives picked him up from his Gulshan home around 9:25am.

Police last night said he was arrested in a case filed with Ramna Police Station over Saturday's attack on the residence of the chief justice in Kakrail.

Besides, law enforcers accused many other top leaders of the party in the 28 cases filed with 21 police stations of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, officers said.

Police in the morning cordoned off the BNP's Nayapaltan headquarters as a crime scene. Officers in riot gear stood guard around it.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told a virtual press briefing in the evening that 960 BNP leaders and activists were arrested in the capital and other districts since Saturday.

Faruk Hossain, deputy commissioner (media) of the DMP, said police arrested 696 people in the capital. At least 445 of them were taken to different Dhaka courts for hearings.

Besides, at least 265 BNP activists were arrested in Rangpur, Faridpur, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Jhenidah, Tangail, Narayanganj, Rajshahi, Brahmanbaria, and Jashore, report our correspondents.

All these happened amid a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal the BNP and Jamaat had called in response to what the BNP said was police action during its Nayapaltan grand rally on Saturday.

Clashes between BNP activists and police left a policeman and a ward-level Jubo Dal leader dead on Saturday. The spate of violence changed the political atmosphere ahead of the national election in January next year.

After Fakhrul was detained, he was taken to the Detective Branch (DB) office on Minto Road.

His wife Rahat Ara Begum said, "Police came and seized all the CCTV equipment from our building. They said they had orders to arrest my husband. I hope they return him soon. He is very sick."

Detectives searched two flats of BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru in the capital's Banani, his son Israfil Khasru told reporters.

"Around 9:30am, DB police came to our flats [in the same building] looking for my father. They searched every room. They took my father's passport and my mother's phone and returned those after 40-50 minutes," he said.

In the capital's Shahjahanpur, Afroza Abbas, president of Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal and wife of BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas, alleged that men in plainclothes claiming to be law enforcers had searched their home twice to look for her husband.

"Men in plainclothes first came knocking around 3:30am and then returned hours later," she told reporters in the evening.

Shahjahanpur police filed a case accusing Abbas and 48 other named and 700-800 unnamed people of attacking policemen near Kamalapur Railway Staff Quarters.

DB teams raided BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal's Lalmatia and Banani homes, BNP chairperson's press wing member Shamsuddin Didar told The Daily Star.

Didar added that the DB also raided the home of BNP executive committee member Ishraque Hossain in Gulshan and picked up his younger brother Ishfaq Hossain and driver Rajib.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters in the afternoon that the top leaders of BNP cannot shrug off their responsibility for the murder of a policeman.

Cases will be filed over the murder, attack on the chief justice's residence, and vandalism on vehicles, he said, adding that the victims will lodge the cases.

Later in the day, he told parliament that at least 115 law enforcers were injured in the attacks by the BNP. He then showed photos of the clashes and vehicles on fire.

They had set 26 vehicles on fire, he said, adding, "What is surprising is that they assaulted police, journalists, hit the girls of Mohila League, and burnt vehicles. And then they did not even hesitate to call for a strike."

A case was filed over the killing of the policeman, and police arrested two suspects. One of them is Shamim Reza, convener of Palashbari Jubo Dal in Gaibandha, and the other is Muhammad Sultan from Demra.

Biplob Kumar Sarker, joint commissioner (operation) of the DMP, told The Daily Star that a few more cases would be filed.