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Violence in front of BNP Office

147 leaders, activists of 18-party indicted

Court Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday indicted 147 BNP-led alliance leaders and activists for assaulting police, blasting cocktails and creating panic near the Nayapaltan headquarters of BNP on March 11 last year.
Among the indicted are BNP leaders Joynal Abdin Farroque, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, Amanullah Aman and Jatiya Gonotantrik Party chief Shafiul Alam
Pradhan.
Soon after the court's order, a counsel for the accused Moslehuddin Jasim said police on that day last year had ransacked the BNP office and assaulted the then 18-party alliancemen.
Law enforcers also rounded up many opposition leaders and activists there and later implicated them in the case, he added.
The lawyer said they would move the
higher court challenging the legality of the indictment order.
Indictment of so many people in a case is very rare in the country’s judicial history. Earlier, a total of 847 people, mostly members of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles and a few civilians, were indicted in a case for killing 74 people, including 57 army officers, during the February 2009 mutiny by the members of the paramilitary force at its Pilkhana headquarters.
During the hearing yesterday, BNP leader Farroque told the court that police on that day had entered their office and assaulted them without any provocation. The BNP should have sued policemen for carrying out the attack, but rather police have filed cases against party men to divert attention from the fact, regretted Farroque.
Farroque, Rizvi, Aman, Pradhan and 95 others pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Metropolitan Magistrate Tareq Mainul Islam Bhuiyan read out charges to them.
The charges in the case filed under the speedy trial act were pressed on March 24 against 148 opposition alliance men, but one Omar Faruk was dropped from indictment as he died last year.
The court also cancelled bails of 48 others and issued arrest warrants for them for failing to appear before it.
The magistrate fixed September 25 for starting trial of the case.
Law enforcers on March 11 last year detained 157 leaders and activists of the BNP-led alliance during a raid on the BNP headquarters after cocktails went off at a rally in front of the office.
Paltan police on the same day filed two cases against 154 of the detainees.
Of the detainees, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Vice-chairman Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and then Dhaka city unit convener Sadeque Hossain Khoka were freed the next day.
On March 20, all the 154 alliance men except for then opposition chief whip Farroque, Aman and Rizvi were placed on a three-day remand in the case.
Such a large number of people had never been remanded before at a time in the country's history. Previously, the highest number of accused remanded in any case was 60, according to court records.
Investigation was underway in the other case filed under the penal code against the same accused.