Pintu held in BDR rebellion case

Former BNP lawmaker, Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu, was arrested at the premises of the High Court on Tuesday on charge of helping rebel BDR soldiers flee their headquarters at Pilkhana on February 25-26.
A team of Detective Branch Police, with the help of Shahbagh police station, picked him up at around 5:15pm just after he came out of the High Court where he had gone to pursue a writ petition.
Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Detective Branch (South), confirming his arrest told New Age, ‘We have arrested Pintu and brought him in our custody on the basis of requisition from the Criminal Investigation Department which is investigating the BDR mutiny case.’
The 12-member national inquiry committee headed by former secretary Anisuzzaman Khan on May 21 submitted a 309-page report to the home ministry in which they revealed that Pintu had instigated the mutineers and helped them flee the scene after the carnage.
Court sources said Pintu’s lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon filed a writ petition with the bench of justice Tariqul Haqim and justice Azizul Haque on Sunday for no harassment or arrest of Pintu in the BDR mutiny case. But the bench didn’t give its ruling on Tuesday and his lawyer withdrew the petition.
Earlier, Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu had been sent to jail after he turned himself to a Dhaka court seeking bail in two cases for attempted murder and theft on February 15, 2007.
A former leader of JCD, the student wing of BNP, Pintu’s name is closely linked with several crimes and he had been evading arrest since the joint forces launched a countrywide hunt for top corrupt people and criminals in January 2007.
Former lawmaker Pinto had captured a room at the MP Hostel immediately after winning the 2001 parliamentary elections for Lalbagh-Kamrangirchar constituency (Dhaka-7) although no room had yet been allotted to him.
During his stint as a member of parliament, Pintu allegedly exerted political influence to grab public land, manipulated tenders, patronised local extortionists and criminal groups, and tortured activists of rival political parties as well as of rival factions in BNP.
He was once arrested during the 1996-2001 Awami League (AL) rule and even once during the immediate past BNP-led coalition government’s rule. But Pintu could never be brought to book due to government intervention.
Condemning the arrest, the secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party Khandakar Delwar Hossain in a statement said the government was continuing repression on opposition leaders and activists to cover up its failure.
He demanded immediate and unconditional release of Pintu and his brother-in-law Mainur Rahman Apu.

Courtesy of NewAgebd