Charges pressed against 130 leaders, activists

Police have recently pressed charges against 130 BNP-led alliance leaders and activists in a case filed in connection with violence near the BNP central office on March 11 last year.

Among the accused are BNP leaders Joynal Abdin Farroque, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Amanullah Aman and Jatiya Gonotantrik Party chief Shafiul Alam Pradhan. All the 130 accused in the case are on bail.

On August 3, Paltan Police Station Sub-Inspector Abu Zafar, also the case's investigation officer, submitted two charge sheets to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka, showing 25 people as prosecution witnesses, court sources revealed yesterday.

Of the two charge sheets, one was submitted for hurling crude bombs at policemen and the other was filed for assaulting them and creating panic among people near the BNP office last year.

The charge sheets were submitted only to keep the BNP-led alliance leader “busy and out of anti-government movement”, Moslehuddin Jasim, a pro-BNP lawyer, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The IO also pleaded to drop names of 24 others as accused in the case and the court fixed September 30 to decide on the matter, added the court sources.

Police had filed two cases, accusing the same 154 BNP-led alliance men in each of those, following a raid at the BNP office on March 11 last year.

On August 25, 147 of the BNP-led alliance leaders and activists were indicted in the other case filed for vandalising and torching vehicles near the BNP office in the March 11 incident.

During the police raid, 157 leaders and activists of the BNP-led alliance including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Sadeque Hossain Khoka were detained.

The police made the move hours after several cocktails were blasted at an opposition rally in front of the BNP office on that day.

Fakhrul and Khoka were released just a day after being detained.