Appear on Oct 5 or face arrest

An arrest warrant will be issued on October 5 if BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia fails to appear before a Dhaka court on that day in a case filed over undermining the country's map and national flag.

Metropolitan Magistrate Nur Nabi passed the order yesterday after AB Siddique, president of Bangladesh Jananetri Parishad, a pro-Awami League organisation, submitted a petition seeking an arrest warrant for Khaleda for her failure to comply with the court order, court sources said.

On March 22, the same court had issued a summons against Khaleda asking her to appear before it on September 12. But the BNP chief didn't comply.

Siddique on November 3 last year filed the case with the court, accusing Khaleda and her late husband and former president Ziaur Rahman of undermining the country's map and national flag.

After holding a hearing, the court ordered the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station to investigate the matter.

OC (investigation) Moshiur Rahman of the police station found the allegations to be true. He, however, dropped Zia's name from the case as he is dead.

Moshiur submitted the probe report to the court on February 25.

According to the case statement, Zia had taken over as the country's president after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975. He also threatened Hasina and confined her after she arrived in the country from abroad on May 17, 1981.

Khaleda had formed a coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami in 2001. She appointed ministers from the party and handed over the map and the national flag of independent Bangladesh to them even though they fought against the country during the Liberation War, the statement read.

Those activities were tantamount to undermining the country's map and national flag, it added.