A metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on Monday remanded Bangladesh Nationalist Party vice-chairman Hafizuddin Ahmed in police custody for two days for interrogation in a case filed for the killing of a police constable in an arson attack on a parked bus in the capital’s Banglamotor on December 24. The metropolitan magistrate, Harun-or-Rashid, passed the order after hearing both the petitions for his bail and remand.
Mohammad Ali Hossain, sub-inspector of Ramna police station, produced Hafizuddin before the court seeking a seven-day remand.
Traffic police constable Ferdous Khalil, 42, was burnt to death and his fellow Faizul Islam and the bus driver suffered burns after two assailants on a motorcycle hurled a petrol bomb at the bus parked at Banglamotor on December 24, more than six hours after a blockade enforced by the BNP-led opposition alliance had ended.
On December 25, Dhaka Metropolitan Police filed the murder case against 40 opposition leaders and activists, including acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, for the arson attack.
According to the case document, Hafizuddin was not named in the first information report as an accused.
Defence counsels told the court the government had shown a freedom fighter arrested to ‘suppress’ the opposition’s movement and ‘eliminate’ the party leadership.
In reply, public prosecutor Shah Alam Talukder said that the accused had abetted in the offence and should be interrogated to find out the motives for the offence.
During the hearing, BNP leaders and lawyers loyal to the opposition staged demonstration on the court premises.
On Sunday evening, detective branch of police arrested Hafizuddin minutes after he came out of the National Press Club after announcing the opposition’s fresh movement programme.
-With New Age input
