BNP vice chairman Altaf Hossain Chowdhury sent to jail

Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) vice chairman Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury has been sent to jail.

The court of judge Mohammad Sheikh Sadi of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in Dhaka passed the order on Sunday.

Earlier, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the BNP leader from Tongi in Gazipur, a message from RAB media wing said on Sunday morning.

Altaf Hossain’s lawyer Taherul Islam said he was shown arrested in a case filed at Ramna police station regarding the attack on the residence of the Chief Justice, and acts of sabotage and violence on 28 October, the day of a mass rally of de facto opposition BNP.

Police produced Altaf Hossain before the court and pleaded to keep him behind the bars while the defence lawyers pleaded for his bail.

Another defence lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder told the court that the age of Altaf Hossain is 82 years and he is ill. He was shown arrested only because of his political identity.

BNP leader Altaf Hossain was a former home minister and a former chief of the Bangladesh Air Force.

Several central leaders of BNP including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Mirza Abbas, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and media cell’s convener Zahir Uddin Swapan have been arrested centering the clash between police and the BNP leaders and activists during the party’s grand rally at Naya Paltan on 28 October.