Fakhrul, Abbas arrested, sent to jail
FE REPORT | Saturday, 10 December 2022
BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and the party's Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas were sent to jail on Friday by a Dhaka court, in a case filed over Wednesday's clashes between BNP activists and police at Naya Paltan in the city.
Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court Mohammad Jashim passed the order on the day after rejecting their bail petitions filed with the court by the defence lawyers.
Lawyers Masud Ahmed Talukder, Borhan Uddin, Omar Faruq, Iqbal Hossain, Nargis Perveen Mukti appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the BNP leaders while Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu represented the state.
The case was filed with Paltan Model Police Station on Thursday, after a clash took place on Wednesday between BNP men and police in front of the party's Naya Paltan head office.
Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas were taken to the Dhaka CMM court on Friday afternoon after their arrests earlier.
The two senior BNP leaders have been sent to jail on the eve of the party's divisional rally to be held in the capital on Saturday.
They were kept at the prison cell of the court after they were taken there around 4:10pm, said lawyer Nargis Perveen Mukti.
A petition was submitted before the court on behalf of police to keep the two leaders in the jail. On the other hand, lawyers of the two leaders filed the bail plea for them. The state counsels also prayed to the court to keep them in the jail opposing their bail petition. After hearing, the court rejected the bail petition filed and sent them to jail.
Plainclothes men identifying themselves as law enforcers picked up Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas from their homes around 3:00am, Sayrul Kabir Khan, member of the BNP's Media Cell told journalists.
Later, they were shown arrested on charges of provoking party members to launch an attack on police in Naya Paltan area during Wednesday's clashes, DB chief Harun-Or-Rashid told reporters in front of DB office on Friday.
Meanwhile, pro-BNP lawyers staged a demo on the court premises demanding unconditional release of the party leaders and activists detained after the incident.