A doctor talks with an arson victim at burnt unit of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital Tuesday. The victim was a passenger of the bus which came under attack on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Chauddagram upazila of Comilla early Tuesday, February 3, 2015. Photo: STAR

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been sued as instigator in two cases filed over the arson attack in Chouddagram of Comilla where seven commoners were burnt alive yesterday.

Nuruzzaman Howladar, a sub-inspector of Chouddagram Police Station, filed the lawsuits last night against 56 named and 20 other anonymous people, our Comilla correspondent reports quoting Uttam Kumar Chakrabarti, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher, now the party's upazila chief, has been named prime accused in both the cases, the OC said.

Early yesterday, at least seven people were burned alive and 16 scorched after miscreants petrol-bombed a bus full of sleeping passengers on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.

"The arson attack was carried out in line with the orders of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. That is why Khaleda is named as an instigator in both cases," Nuruzzaman Howladar, the SI who filed the case, told The Daily Star.

The mindless arson of Comilla raised the death toll of the political violence, which began since the start of this year, to 50 including 35 without any reported link to politics.