JATRABARI BUS ARSON, Police press charges against Khaleda, 37 others.
Charges were pressed against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, and 37 opposition leaders and activists on Wednesday in one of the two cases filed for Jatrabari arson attack that killed one and burned 27 others.The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Wednesday submitted two charge sheets to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution) Anisur Rahman told New Age.The investigators submitted two charge sheets – one under the Penal Code and the other under the Explosive Substances Act – in a case that was transformed into a murder case after the death of one of the victims.
The investigators submitted the charge sheets showing seven accused including BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed in jail and sought warrant for arrest of the rest 31 including Khaleda.The investigator, Demra zone Detective Branch sub-inspector Bashir Ahmed Khan, told New Age, ‘Though I am investigating the case, I am sure whether the charge sheets were submitted to the court.’Khaleda was named in the charge sheet for abetting the other accused, while the rest, mostly influential opposition leaders and organisers, were named either for plotting or for carrying out the arson attack.The BNP leaders named in the charge sheet include its standing committee member MK Anwar, chairperson’s advisers Khandaker Mahbub Hossain and Shawkat Mahmud, joint secretaries general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, Barkat Ullah Bulu and Amanullah Aman, assistant student affairs secretary Sultan Salah Uddin Tuku, central committee member Azizul Bari Helal, Dhaka city BNP member-secretary Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, Swchchhasebak Dal general secretary Mir Sharfat Ali Sapu, Chhatra Dal organising secretary Ishaque Sarkar, chairperson’s special assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, Khaleda’s press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, BNP’s press wing official Mir Abu Jafar Shamsuddin Didar, and former Dhaka City Corporation commissioners Nabi Ullah Nabi, Abdul Kaiyum and Abdul Latif.
Former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Ahmed, his son Tanvir Rabin and leaders and activists of Jatrabari area were also named for carrying out the arson attack.The official said that 81 people, mostly government employees and victims, were named as prosecution witnesses.The investigator dropped 42 people including BNP standing committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah and vice-chairman Selima Rahman from the charge sheet saying that the investigation had not found enough evidence against them.On January 23, miscreants carried out the arson attack on a Glory Paribahan bus in Katherpol area of Jatrabari, leaving 31 passengers burned.Jatrabari police sub-inspector KM Nuruzzaman filed two cases – one under Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act and the other under Special Powers Act – on January 24 against 68 BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and a number of unnamed people for the arson attack.
Although Khaleda was not named as an accused in the cases, her name was mentioned in the first information reports, stating that Khaleda on January 5 called an indefinite blockade and asked the BNP-led alliance central leaders to enforce blockade till the fall of the government. On her direction, 18 central BNP leaders, named as accused, along with some other leaders of the alliance ordered leaders and activists, overtly and covertly, to carry out subversive acts at places.In accordance with their direction and planning, 32 local BNP and alliance leaders and activists set fire to the moving bust at Demra on January 23, the complaints had stated.One of the victims, Nur Alam, 60, died on February 1 at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.Following the death, one of the cases was transformed into a murder case.The Detective Branch the submitted charge sheets in the case filed under the Penal Code and Explosive Substances Act that was transformed into the murder case.Two accused, Shohag and Liton, held later by the law enforcers made confessional statements in the case, the charge sheets mentioned.Khaleda, also former prime minister, is facing at least five cases filed since she handed over power to caretaker government in 2006.
Of the five, the trials in two graft cases – Shaheed Zia Charitable Trust Case and Zia Orphanage Trust Case – are going on in a Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka while three others have been stayed by the High Court.Apart from the cases, at least three cases were filed after the BNP-led alliance enforced non-stop blockade from January 5 demanding a fresh national elections under a non-party election time administration.
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