Fakhrul gets bail in police assault case

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a case filed for assaulting police and torching vehicles in the capital's Kadamtali during an opposition blockade in December 2012.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alamgir Kabir Raj passed the order after Fakhrul had surrendered before the court and pleaded for bail.
On Sunday, the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Yunus Khan issued an arrest warrant for the BNP leader as Fakhrul, who was visiting Singapore, did not appear before it on that day.
The magistrate came up with the order after accepting the charge sheet against Fakhrul in the case.
On June 16, Kadamtali police pressed charges of vandalism, arson and assault on police against the BNP leader and 60 other activists of the then 18-party alliance during the blockade.
According to the charge sheet, a group of opposition activists, led by BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed, torched several vehicles after blocking Postogola-Narayanganj highway on December 9, 2012.
Later in the day, Kadamtali police filed the case against 77 opposition leaders and activists, including Salauddin. Fakhrul was named in the first information report as an instigator.
On August 22 this year, police submitted the charge sheet against Fakhrul and 60 other leaders and activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance.