Farroque, Rizvi among 154 sent to jail
Law enforcers produce leaders and activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Photo: Rashed Shumon
A total of 154 opposition leaders and activists including Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin
Farroque and BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed have been sent to jail over Monday's violence.
The other top leaders landing in prison include BNP joint secretaries general Amanullah Aman and Md Shahjahan, BNP chairperson's adviser AZM Zahid Hossain and Jatiya Ganatantrik Party President Shafiul Alam Prodhan.
Before sending the defendants to jail on Tuesday, two metropolitan magistrates fixed March 20 for hearing on prayers seeking remand for 17 days in two cases in connection with the violence in front of BNP's Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital.
The jail authorities have been asked to produce the accused before the courts during the hearings.
Police around 4:30pm produced the opposition leaders and activists before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court with remand for 17 days -- 10 days in an explosive case and seven days in the other case filed under the speedy trial tribunal act.
Meanwhile, lawyers loyal to BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami staged demonstrations on the court premises in protest against the arrests.
Earlier in the day, police sued over 190 leaders and activists of the alliance on charges of attacking law enforcers and blasting bombs during a rally in front of BNP’s central office at Nayapaltan.
Two cases were filed with the Paltan Police Station mentioning 153 names, Nasima Akhter, additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Media Centre, told The Daily Star.
The cases also sued at least 40 unnamed people, the ADC added.
Police on Monday arrested more than 200 opposition leaders, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, during a two and a half hours’ raid at the party’s central office.
During the raid, law enforcers recovered 12 homemade bombs from inside the BNP headquarters.
The raid was launched after some homemade bombs had been blasted near a BNP rally held in front of its office, around 4:50pm.
Later, Fakhrul announced a nationwide dawn-to-dusk shutdown for Tuesday from the rally, claiming that it was an attack on the 18-party rally.
The BNP standing committee at an emergency meeting Monday night threatened the government with enforcing two more hartals on March 18 and 19, if it did not release the detained opposition leaders by Thursday.
BNP leaders Alamgir, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and Sadeque Hossain Khoka however were released from DB (Detective Branch of police) office Tuesday afternoon.
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