Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi landed in jail after the police had arrested him storming into the BNP headquarters breaking open a door on early Saturday.
Metropolitan magistrate Ashikur Rahman ordered Rizvi to jail after the police produced him before the court in a case field with the Shahbagh police on Friday for arson attack on a moving bus near Shishu Park on November 28 that killed at least two persons and injured 17 others.
The court also posted for December 4 the remand and bail hearing.
Witnesses said that plainclothes police stormed into the BNP central office at Nayapaltan in the city breaking open a door on the first floor at about 3:45am and arrested Rizvi and BNP executive committee member Belal Ahmed.
The police ransacked documents, computers and furniture at the office including the rooms of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the witnesses said.
They said that the police later came out of the building breaking the locks of the main gate with hacksaw blades.
BNP office staffs alleged that the police climbed up with a ladder on the first floor’s balcony of the building as the main gate was locked. They entered the first floor breaking open the door.
The police entered the room where Rizvi was sleeping, an office staff said, adding, ‘Rizvi was thrown on the floor from the bed…we got afraid and took corners to save us from the furious police personnel.’
The police also assaulted reporters of private television channels and damaged equipments of two channels, the witnesses said.
Ekattor TV senior correspondent Shafique Ahmed said that he and ‘Gtv’ senior correspondent Gausil Ajam Dipu were locked in a room by the police. Cameras of Somoy TV and Ekattor TV were broken by the police as they were taken footage of the police raid.
The police later produced Rizvi and Belal before the court that sent them to jail.
The police filed a petition seeking Rizvi to be remanded in police custody for interrogation in the arson attack case.
The police also implicated Rizvi and Belal in two more cases related to violence in September and November and sought them to be remanded in custody for interrogation in those cases.
In the past one month, several other top BNP leaders have been arrested on charges of strike and blockade related violence and are now in jail.
Earlier, the police had raided the BNP headquarters seven months ago and arrested some top leaders including acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Rizvi was also arrested then and had to spend time in jail before securing bail.
No BNP leader was seen at the party office on Saturday while the office remained confined by the police.
BNP joint secretary general Salahdddin Ahmed was appointed to act as the party spokesperson in absence of Rizvi, but he was not seen at the party office.
District unit BNP on Saturday called day-long general strike in Kurigram for today demanding immediate release of Rizvi and others leaders and activists.
A 20-member delegation of professionals led by Bangladesh Bar Council vice-chairman Khandaker Mahbub Hossain visited the BNP office at noon.
After visiting the office, Mahbub told reporters that the act of vandalism at a party office in such way was ‘only possible in an uncivilised society’.
Mahbub condemned the arrest of Rizvi and the assault on journalists.
-With New Age input
