Hannan remanded

BNP leader Hannan Shah gets down from the prison van on the CMM's court premises yesterday.

Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah, the most outspoken pro-Khaleda leader of BNP and one of her advisers, has been silenced as he was placed on a three-day remand yesterday after being arrested from his Mohakhali DOHS residence before midnight on Wednesday.
A team of police arrested Hannan Shah, also a former minister, from his residence at 11:40pm on Wednesday on charges of emergency rules violations and was taken to Cantonment Police Station afterwards.
Hannan Shah and 31 others including 25 unnamed individuals have been charged with assaulting Saifur-led BNP leaders including Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, member of BNP standing committee, near former president Ziaur Rahman's grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on November 7 -- the National Revolution and Solidarity Day.
The other six named accused are Judo Dal General Secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal, former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Asaduzzaman Ripon, Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha (Jasas) General Secretary Babul Ahmed, Zakir Hossain Kajol, Ali Arshad Mamun and Abul Bashar.
Zakir Hossain, Ali Arshad and Abul Bashar were arrested on Wednesday from the scene where the incident took place.
The same night, Sub-inspector Golam Mabud of Tejgaon Police Station filed the case against the accused.
At around 3:50pm yesterday, investigation officer (IO) of the case Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman of the same police station produced Hannan Shah, Zakir, Ali Arshad and Abul Bashar before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka amid tight security.
The accused were later brought to the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui with seven-day remand prayer for each.
The prosecution quoting the IO said the arrested accused and the unknown others, 20 to 25, led by Hannan Shah, entered Zia Udyan in procession, chanting slogans that violated the provisions of the Emergency Power Rules. Furthermore, they assaulted Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman.
As such, the produced accused persons were needed to be taken in remand for interrogation to find out the whereabouts of other attackers.
The defence lawyers filed two petitions -- one for the cancellation of remands of each of the four arrested accused and the other one for providing proper treatment to Hannan.
After the hearing, the court granted three-day remand for Hannan and the others for interrogation.
During the hearing, with permission from the court, Hannan Shah rejected the allegation against him saying that he was not present at the place of occurrence when the incident took place. He said the incident occurred at 10:30am, whereas he reached the scene at 11:55am as the government directed him not to visit the mazar before 12:00 noon.
"So the charges brought against me are false, fabricated, concocted and intentional. It was brought to undermine me politically," Hannan told the court.
Hannan Shah came in the spotlight for conveying BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's messages to the party and the media when her movements were restricted during the early days of the state of emergency this year.
Later he built up a strong opinion within the party against Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan's initiative to hold a council of the party without Khaleda Zia.
During the months of floods, Hannan visited affected areas and arranged Khaleda Zia to speak with people and her followers over loudspeaker via his cellphone.
He also played a vital role in the politics of BNP since Khaleda's arrest on September 3 by being vocal against Saifur-Hafiz committee and endorsing Khandaker Delwar Hossain, appointed by Khaleda, as the new secretary general of the party.
Rejecting the Saifur-led committee, he alleged that on October 29, during the controversial meeting of the party's standing committee at Saifur Rahman's Gulshan residence, some standing committee members were forced to sign blank papers with the presence of two "mysterious persons". He also alleged that the Saifur-led committee was formed under the supervision of a certain quarter to destroy BNP.
Khaleda loyalists believe that Hannan's stand against the Saifur-led committee, appointed by the BNP standing committee, is one of the major reasons behind his arrest.
Hannan's stance against the Election Commission's invitation for dialogue to Hafiz only accelerated his arrest further, said a number of Khaleda loyalist leaders.
Earlier on May 14 this year, Hannan Shah was arrested with his elder son Shah Rezaul Hannan at their house at Mohakhali DOHS in Dhaka in an extortion case amid ongoing purge against corruption launched by the caretaker regime.
Hannan Shah was then remanded for five days for interrogation in connection with a case filed by Kapashia Awami League General Secretary Ruhul Amin with Kapashia Police Station in Gazipur.
Both Hannan and his son were freed from Kashimpur jail on July 22 as the High Court granted them ad-interim bail for two months in two cases.
Meanwhile, 47 former lawmakers in a joint statement demanded release of Hannan Shah and urged the government not to harass party leaders.
"Neutrality of the government would be questioned and doubts over the next election would be strengthened if BNP leaders and workers are harassed," said the statement issued by former lawmaker and Dhaka Divisional Organising Secretary of BNP central executive committee Mohammad Shahjahan.
The signatories of the statement include Selim Reza Habib, Abdul Momin Talukder, Nurul Kabir Shaheen, Sohrab Uddin, Mehedi Ahmed Rumi, Gazi Shahjahan, Kazi Rafiqul Islam, Shaheed Uddin Chowdhury Anny, Mozammel Haque, Rabeya Chowdhury, Sarwari Rahman, Selima Rahman and Rehana Akhter Ranu.