BNP says police detained ex-JCD president Azizul Bari Helal

Police have detained Azizul Bari Helal, a former president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, after arresting BNP leaders Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Aninda Islam Amit over attack on police, the party says.

Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told bdnews24.com some police personnel in plainclothes detained Helal from his home in Dhaka’s Moghbazar Wireless area around 7:45pm on Wednesday. 

“I strongly condemn the arrest,” Rizvi said.

Helal is currently the BNP’s information affairs secretary.

Police neither confirmed nor denied the BNP claim of Helal's detention.

Police, earlier, admitted having in their custody BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar and Anindya, an assistant organising secretary of the party, around an hour after detaining them on Tuesday night.

A court ordered Gayeshwar into jail and remanded Aninda on Wednesday for three days in one of the three cases started over the attack on police.

On Tuesday afternoon, BNP activists attacked police near the High Court when their party chief Khaleda Zia was returning home after attending the hearing of a graft case against her in a special court in Bakhshibazar.  

The attackers stormed a police prison van, snatched away two detainees, beat up several law enforcers, smashed police guns and took away some protective gears.      

Police have arrested over 50 BNP leaders and activists, including Gayeshwar, over the attack.

The Awami League sees an ominous sign in the ‘militant-style attack’ while the BNP has claimed ‘infiltrators, not their activists’ carried it out.