Ex-BNP MP, Savar mayor arrested
Police in separate drives yesterday arrested former BNP lawmaker Dewan Mohammad Salauddin, Savar Municipality Mayor Mohammad Refat Ullah and five others on sabotage charges.
Salauddin, also vice-president of Dhaka district BNP, was a lawmaker of Dhaka-13.
A team of Savar police picked up Salauddin from his Paribagh residence in the capital around 6:00am, said SM Kamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Savar Police Station.
He was accused in several cases filed with Savar and Ashulia police stations on charges of sabotage, the OC said.
Meanwhile, Refat Ullah was arrested from his home at Kornopara in Savar in the early hours of yesterday.
Refat, also the president of the municipality unit BNP, is accused in several cases filed with Savar and Ashulia police stations.
He was suspended from his mayoral post for his alleged involvement in the Rana Plaza collapse. But he took charge of office on Thursday following a High Court order, sources said.
Police early yesterday also arrested five alleged activists of the BNP-Jamaat alliance at a house in Savar's Shahibagh area and seized one revolver, 29 bullets, two crude bombs, two laptops, and 27 jihadi books and magazines from their possessions, said OC Kamruzzaman.
They arrestees are Shariful Islam, Hafez Moulana Jahangir Alam, Monjurul Islam, Shahidul Islam, and Ismail Hossain. They were planning to create anarchy in the country through subversive activities, the OC added.
Two cases were filed with Savar Police Station against all the arrestees, including the two BNP leaders, under the Arms Act and Anti-Terrorism Act.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed them on a 10-day police remand each in the two cases.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Syed Siraj Jinnat passed the order after Savar police produced them before it with a 20-day remand prayer.
FAKHRUL BLASTS GOVT
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the government was arresting his party leaders and activists and implicating them in “false” cases in a bid to hide its failure to maintain the country's law and order.
“The government wants to shift people's attention from the failures through arresting the BNP leaders and activists, and implicating them in false cases,” he said in a statement.
He also blasted the government for “snatching” BNP men's rights to justice. “They want to create panic so that the BNP leaders and activists cannot carry out their political activities.”
Fakhrul also held the government responsible for the country's “jeopardised” situation. He said the law enforcement agencies were let loose on the opposition party men instead of using them to maintain law and order.
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