Pintu's prayer for bail rejected

BNP central leader and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, one of the accused in the case for grenade attack on AL rally on August 21, 2004, was produced in a Tangail court yesterday in an extortion case.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Mokhlesur Rahman rejected Pintu's bail petition and fixed April 25 for hearing on the issue.
Awami League (AL) worker Zahidul Islam Bhuiyan alias Lebu filed the case against Pintu and 10 others with Bhuapur Police Station on October 13 last year.
In the case statement, the complainant stated that a gang of 10 on the instruction of Abdus alam Pintu stormed into his house on October 1, 2001 and demanded Tk 3 lakh from his wife Flora Begum. As she refused to oblige, the gang vandalised the house and took away money and other valuables, the complainant added.
Pintu was brought to Tangail from Dhaka Central Jail in a prison van on Saturday night. Of the other accused, eight were earlier granted bail by the High Court while and the rest two are now staying abroad, police sources said.
Leaders and workers of BNP Tangail district unit and its associate bodies gathered on the court premises in the morning and chanted slogans demanding withdrawal of the case. Pintu Mukti Parishad formed a human chain at the same place demanding immediate release of their leader.
Pintu's younger brothers Shamsul Alam Tofa, general secretary of Tangail district BNP, and Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, former president of the central unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), were also present at the court.