BNP men sued in 13 more cases, 177 arrested

Thirteen more cases were filed against  BNP leaders-activists in 9 districts on Monday. Police arrested 177 leaders-activists of BNP in and outside Dhaka yesterday. Of the arrested, 97 were in Dhaka and rest in other districts.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), court sources and information sent by Prothom Alo correspondents from 18 districts revealed this picture of cases and arrest yesterday.

Apart from Dhaka, BNP men faced new cases in Sunamganj, Meherpur, Narsingdi, Sirajganj, Tangail, Mymensingh, Kushtia, Pabna, Pirojpur, Khulna, Satkhira, Chittagong, Narayanganj, Feni, Gazipur, Manikganj, Bogura and Noakhali.

According to DMP, court sources and information sent by Prothom Alo, a total of 8133 BNP leaders-activists were arrested in 10 days between 28 October and 6 November.

Around 500 BNP leaders-activists were made accused in the 13 new cases yesterday. Bhasantek thana BNP’s general secretary Ismail Hossain was arrested in case filed over sabotage with Dhaka Cantonment police station.

BNP’s central vice chariman Shamsuzzaman Dudu was arrested from Cantonment area at the dead of Monday night. He was shown arrested in a case filed in connection with vandalizing the residence of the chief justice on 28 October. Police took him on 3-day remand through the court yesterday.

In the remand hearing, prosecutors said Shamsuzzaman delivered provocative speech on 28 October. BNP leaders were involved with attacking the residence of the chief justice. They torched and exploded crude bombs on that day.

Shamsuzzaman told the court that no vice chairman of BNP addressed the party’s rally on 28 October. The rally was suspended before the BNP secretary general deliver his speech.

Shamsuzzman in his deposition told the court that they are fighting for establishing democracy and ensuring a good election in the country.

Meanwhile, the police yesterday sent BNP joint secretary general Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal to jail after 5-day remand. He was arrested in police murder case.

According to DMP,  a total of 1554 BNP leaders-activists were arrested in Dhaka between 28 Octobers and 5 November. Some 102 cases were filed in this period, said DMP media and public relations additional deputy commissioner KN Roy Niyati on Monday evening.

DMP said, 696 BNP men were arrested in Dhaka on 28 October, 256 on 29 October, 158 on 30 October, 141 on 31 October, 96 on 1 November, 60 on 2 November, 58 on 3 November, 37 on 4 November and 52 on 5 November.

Of the cases filed under DMP, the highest 33 were filed in Motijheel division, 18 in Mirpur and 15 in Wari. 4 to 11 cases were filed in Ramna, Lalbagh, Tejgaon, Gulshan and Uttara divisions.

Court sources said, a total of 97 BNP men were arrested on 6 November while a new case was filed with Cantonment police station.

As per information sent by Prothom Alo correspondent, police arrested 80 BNP leaders-activists from 18 districts in 24 hours. Of them, 10 each were arrested in Narayanganj and Noakhali districts. The arrestees include Meherpur district BNP general secretary and former lawmaker Amjad Hossain.

Meanwhile, 12 fresh cases were filed in 8 districts outside Dhaka. Three cases were filed in Feni, two each in Noakhali and Bogura and one each in Pirojpur, Pabna, Kushtia, Sirajganj and Narayanganj. A total of 415 BNP leaders-activists were accused in these cases. Feni district BNP’s joint convener Gazi Habib Ullah was among the leaders accused in the cases.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Operation) of police headquarters Anwar Hossain told Prothom Alo that police on average arrest 1400-1500 persons for various crimes every day. The number of arrested persons now is almost the same.

No BNP men except ones accused are being arrested, he added.

The police are arresting one after another top leaders of BNP since the party’s rally on 28 October was marred by violence. At least 11 top leaders including the party’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Mirza Abbas have so far been arrested. Many influential leaders of district and city committees were also arrested in the last 9 days.

BNP senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in a statement on Monday alleged  that the police are torturing the party's activists at police stations after arresting them.

Rizvi said police are indiscriminately raiding the houses of BNP leaders-activists. The police illegally arrest fathers, brothers or other family members if they do not find the BNP men at their houses.