Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi
landed in jail after the police had arrested him storming into the BNP
headquarters breaking open a door on early Saturday.
Metropolitan magistrate Ashikur Rahman ordered Rizvi to jail after the
police produced him before the court in a case field with the Shahbagh
police on Friday for arson attack on a moving bus near Shishu Park on
November 28 that killed at least two persons and injured 17 others.
The court also posted for December 4 the remand and bail hearing.
Witnesses said that plainclothes police stormed into the BNP central
office at Nayapaltan in the city breaking open a door on the first floor
at about 3:45am and arrested Rizvi and BNP executive committee member
Belal Ahmed.
The police ransacked documents, computers and furniture at the office
including the rooms of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting secretary
general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the witnesses said.
They said that the police later came out of the building breaking the locks of the main gate with hacksaw blades.
BNP office staffs alleged that the police climbed up with a ladder on
the first floor’s balcony of the building as the main gate was locked.
They entered the first floor breaking open the door.
The police entered the room where Rizvi was sleeping, an office staff
said, adding, ‘Rizvi was thrown on the floor from the bed…we got afraid
and took corners to save us from the furious police personnel.’
The police also assaulted reporters of private television channels and damaged equipments of two channels, the witnesses said.
Ekattor TV senior correspondent Shafique Ahmed said that he and ‘Gtv’
senior correspondent Gausil Ajam Dipu were locked in a room by the
police. Cameras of Somoy TV and Ekattor TV were broken by the police as
they were taken footage of the police raid.
The police later produced Rizvi and Belal before the court that sent them to jail.
The police filed a petition seeking Rizvi to be remanded in police custody for interrogation in the arson attack case.
The police also implicated Rizvi and Belal in two more cases related to
violence in September and November and sought them to be remanded in
custody for interrogation in those cases.
In the past one month, several other top BNP leaders have been arrested
on charges of strike and blockade related violence and are now in jail.
Earlier, the police had raided the BNP headquarters seven months ago and
arrested some top leaders including acting secretary general Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Rizvi was also arrested then and had to spend
time in jail before securing bail.
No BNP leader was seen at the party office on Saturday while the office remained confined by the police.
BNP joint secretary general Salahdddin Ahmed was appointed to act as the
party spokesperson in absence of Rizvi, but he was not seen at the
party office.
District unit BNP on Saturday called day-long general strike in Kurigram
for today demanding immediate release of Rizvi and others leaders and
activists.
A 20-member delegation of professionals led by Bangladesh Bar Council
vice-chairman Khandaker Mahbub Hossain visited the BNP office at noon.
After visiting the office, Mahbub told reporters that the act of
vandalism at a party office in such way was ‘only possible in an
uncivilised society’.
Mahbub condemned the arrest of Rizvi and the assault on journalists. (source)