Bangladeshi court rejects bail petitions of opposition leaders, activists

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – A Bangladeshi court on Monday rejected the bail petitions of more than 200 opposition leaders and activists accused of being linked to recent clashes between Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) members and police.

At least one person was killed and over a hundred injured, including dozens of police officers, in the hours-long clashes on Dec. 7 between activists of the BNP and members of law enforcement in the capital Dhaka’s Naya Paltan neighborhood, where the headquarters of the BNP is located.

The bail petitions of 224 opposition party members were rejected Monday and the court ordered that they be sent to jail.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and central leaders Mirza Abbas, Abdus Salam, Khairul Kabir Khokon, Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie and Fazlul Haque Milon were among them.

Lawyers for the accused said the case filed by police against the BNP leaders and activists was politically motivated and just to harass them.

The BNP leaders have been accused of instructing people to attack the police during the Dec. 7 clashes.

Amid the volatile and tense political environment, the BNP will hold nationwide protests Tuesday demanding the withdrawal of all politically motivated cases against party leaders and activists and releasing them from jail.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, BNP vice-chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu said the ruling Awami League government is trying to control the mass upsurge by pushing opposition leaders into jail through false cases.

“But people no longer want this government and they want a change through a free, fair and participatory election. The spontaneous participation of hundreds of thousands of people in the Dec. 10 mass rally in Dhaka despite heavy obstacles by the government proves how much people are fed up with the Awami League government,” Dudu said.

The BNP held a grand rally on Dec. 10 in the capital Dhaka demanding the reinstatement of a non-political caretaker government system for holding next year’s national elections and freeing Begum Khaleda Zia, the 76-year-old party head and two-time prime minister who has been jailed for 17 years since being convicted in 2018 in two graft cases.

The Awami League party's general secretary, Obaidul Quader, however, vowed at a party meeting Monday that no election would be held under a caretaker government.

“If the BNP wants to exist politically, they should make preparations for the next election under the existing system,” said Quader.