BNP leader Nipun Roy Chowdhury arrested for ‘plotting violence’

The Rapid Action Battalion has arrested BNP leader Nipun Roy Chowhdury on charges of “conspiring acts of violence”.

A team of the elite police unit detained Nipun, member of the party’s Central Executive Committee and president of South Keraniganj Unit, at her Rayerbazar home on Sunday afternoon, RAB spokesman Ashique Billah said.

It came following information given by ‘Arman’, a local leader of the party arrested in Keraniganj.

BNP leaders had earlier alleged that plainclothesmen detained Nipun, but the police remained silent about it.

The RAB confirmed her arrest in the evening, alleging she had asked Arman to torch bus after Hifazat-e Islam called a shutdown.

Ashique said the RAB arrested Arman on Sunday morning following intel on an arson attack on a bus in Dhaka after Hifazat’s announcement.

A telephone conversation, purportedly between Nipun and Arman, has spread on the internet.

Ashique said they listened to the tape, but it was not the source of their information.

“We arrested them based on intelligence surveillance,” he claimed.