89 Rajshahi BNP, Jamaat men charged with killing cop

This February 24, 2013 Star photo shows a prison van takes Rajshahi Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul and other BNP leaders to jail after a local court denied him bail in cases filed for police killing and blasts in Rajshahi city.

Detectives today pressed charges against 89 leaders and activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami including BNP Joint Secretary General Mizanur Rahman Minu and Rajshahi city Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul in two cases filed in connection with the killing of a police constable last year.

Nur Hossain, inspector of Detective Branch of police in Rajshahi and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheets to the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Rajshahi, reports our district correspondent.

Nadim Mostafa, president of Rajshahi district unit BNP and Md Jahangir, assistant secretary general of the city Jamaat unit, were also charged in the case, said Abul Hashem, inspector of court affairs of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

Of the cases, one was filed for killing police constable Siddhartha Chandra Sarkar, 23, while another was filed under the Explosive Substances Act.

On December 26 last year, Sarkar, 23, and eight other policemen sustained injuries after BNP-Jamaat men allegedly hurled a bomb on a police patrol van in Rajarhata area of Rajshahi city during a movement ahead of the January 5 general polls.

Siddhartha succumbed to his injuries at Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka that night.

Sub-inspector Saiful Islam filed the two cases with Boalia Police Station accusing some 87 BNP and Jamaat men.

On February 24 this year, a Rajshahi court sent to jail 34 BNP leaders and activists, including Minu and Bulbul, who surrendered before it seeking bail in the two cases.

Minu and Bulbul are on bail now.