Fakhrul, Abbas shown arrested: DB Chief

The Chief of Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Harun Or Rashid on Friday afternoon said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas were shown arrested in a case filed with Paltan Police Station on charge of carrying out attack on policemen on December 8.

He disclosed the information to media at the capital's Paltan area.

He earlier said that the BNP leaders who were picked up from their house in the early hours are being questioned.

BNP in the early hours on Friday claimed that plainclothes police picked up its Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital city.

BNP’s Media Cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan said that a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police went to Fakhrul’s Uttara house at the dead of night and picked him up around 3:00 am.

He said another team of the DB police raided the house of Abbas at the same time and picked him up from his Shahjahanpur home in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain condemned the detention of the two top party leaders and said their party’s decision about Saturday’s rally will be announced after a virtual meeting of the standing committee that was supposed to begin at 11:30 am.

Talking to reporters on Friday morning, Fakhrul’s wife Rahat Ara Begum said four DB police members came to the upstairs of their house around 3 am while some others were staying downstairs.

“I asked them the reason behind their arrival here at the dead of night. They said they came here to take him (Fakhrul) away as per the directives of the higher authorities,” she said.

Rahat Ara said as she asked them whether they had any warrant for his arrest, the law enforcers said he was accused in two or three fresh cases that were filed yesterday.

“I was asleep when Abbas woke me up and said they (DB members) were going to take me with them and I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Mirza Abbas’s wife Afroza Abbas.

They said they will return him after discussion with him, she said.

Earlier on Thursday night, a BNP delegation had a six-hour meeting with the DMP commissioner where they talked about holding the rally on Saturday (December 10) either at Kamalapur Stadium or Mirpur Bangla College ground.

Later, Abbas with some BNP leaders visited the two venues.

At that meeting, police authorities assured of reopening BNP office at Nayapaltan.

On Wednesday, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office ahead of its December 10 rally.

On Thursday, a Dhaka court sent 445 BNP leaders and activists to jail in two cases filed over Wednesday’s violence.

Party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Dhaka south city unit convener Abdus Salam and Publication Secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie were among the top leaders who were sent to jail, pending further legal procedures.