Arrest order for 14 BNP leaders

BNP vice chairman Selima Rahman. Star file photo.

A Dhaka court today issued arrest warrants against BNP Vice Chairman Selima Rahman and 13 others in an arson case filed with Khilgaon Police Station in January.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Imdadul Haque passed the order this afternoon after accepting the charges against 24 accused including the 14.

The court also directed the officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station to report by October 12 on execution of the arrest orders.

According to the prosecution, a group of leaders and activists of the BNP-led 20-party alliance brought out a procession and assaulted police preventing them from discharging their duties, damaging and torching vehicles in the city’s Khilgaon area in January this year during their non-stop countrywide hartal and blockade.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's special assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas and her press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel are among the fugitives while nine others are now on bail.