168 BNP men get bail

The High Court yesterday granted bail to 168 BNP leaders and workers for two months in eight cases filed in connection with the violence in the capital and Sirajganj on December 18.
All the accused, including Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal President Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal President Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal President Sultan Salauddin Tuku, appeared before an HC vacation bench to seek bail.
Police filed the cases against them with different police stations in Dhaka and Sirajganj on charges of arson, damaging vehicles, halting traffic movement, anarchy and preventing policemen from discharging their duties on December 18.
The HC bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice Md Anwarul Haque passed the orders after hearing five bail petitions filed by the accused.
At dawn on December 18, several homemade bombs went off in downtown Dhaka as hundreds of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists clashed with police, vandalised more than a dozen vehicles and set some of those on fire.