BNP leaders lying low

Senior BNP leaders, including acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, are lying low after police sued them for arson during the Opposition’s blockades that have pulverized Bangladesh.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s spokesperson Monirul Islam said they were looking for the leaders of the main opposition with modern gadgets.

The accused in the two arson cases include BNP Vice-Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Standing Committee members Mirza Abbas and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Joint Secretaries General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Aman Ullah Aman, Barkat Ullah Bulu, and Salahuddin Ahmed and party Dhaka metropolitan unit’s Member Secretary Abdus Salam.

Police raided the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters and arrested Rizvi early on Saturday.

But the other leaders have gone under the radar since the cases were lodged. Mirza Fakhrul was last seen on Friday at a programme at the party office.

Islam, a DMP Joint Commissioner, on Sunday told bdnews24.com: “We are trying to trace the BNP top-brass. They are not at home. Maybe they are hiding at someone else’s place.”

However, police were yet to identify the perpetrators behind the petrol bomb attacks at Shahbagh and Malibagh.

“Special teams are working to identify and trace them. We have already raided some areas and will conduct more,” said Islam.

Eighteen people suffered severe burn injuries on Thursday when suspected Opposition blockade supporters hurled a petrol bomb, setting fire to the bus they were riding near Shahbagh’s Matsya Bhaban. Two of them died later from their burns.

A pedestrian was killed and five others were injured at Malibagh on Saturday when a bus lost control after a petrol bomb attack and ran over them.

The two cases were filed on Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Shahbagh and Ramna police stations over these arson attacks.

The BNP leaders were accused of instigating the attacks.

But Fakhrul in a statement earlier claimed that it was the government’s ‘agents’ who were torching vehicles and shifting the blame to the Opposition.

More than 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured across the country during the two BNP-led 18-Party alliance’s nationwide blockades until now marked by arson, vandalism, bomb blasts and clashes.