BNP leader Minu, Rajshahi Mayor Bulbul charged with instigating arson

Police have charged BNP Joint Secretary General Mizanur Rahman Minu and Rajshahi Mayor Mosaddeque Hossain Bulbul with instigating arson attacks on vehicles.

Another 45 activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami were named in a case filed by Motihar Police Station Sub-Inspector Ashrafuz Zaman on Saturday night.

During the blockade sponsored by the BNP-led alliance, a Dhaka-bound convoy escorted by law-enforcing agencies came under attack in Kapashia just after midnight on Saturday.

A bus and a truck in the convoy were torched as the attackers lobbed Molotov cocktails at them.

The Rajshahi College unit chief of Jamaat’s student front Islami Chhatra Shibir, Sarwar Alam Siddiqui Joha, topped the list of the accused in the case filed on Saturday, Motihar police OC Alamgir Hossain said.

Joha was seen in photos, published by the media, as leading another attack last Thursday.

Police also named 30-40 other unidentified BNP-Jamaat activists in the case.

The case filed on Saturday night was the third against Minu and Bulbul over similar incidents.

Police named the duo as ‘Hukumer Asami’ (instigator) in the cases.

Minu has been absconding since police raided his house in Rajshahi on Jan 11 while Bulbul has been on the run since a case was filed against him on Jan 19.