A Dhaka court placed BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on three-day remand yesterday in a case filed with Paltan Model police station for torching vehicles and preventing police from carrying out their duties on December 28 last year.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Masud Sheikh passed the order after Md Enayet Karim, sub-inspector of Paltan Model Police Station and the investigation officer of the case, produced Mirza Fakhrul before the court with a petition of a 10-day remand.
In the petition, the sub-inspector said he needed the BNP leader on remand to get more information about the vandalism and find out the other leaders who were involved in the incident.
Defense counsel Md Sanaullah Miah filed a remand rejection petition and sought bail for Mirza Fakhrul. But the court rejected both the remand rejection and the bail petitions.
As per the case, pickets set fire to a staff bus of the Public Administration Department with explosive substances at Purana Paltan intersection, where the bus was parked, around 6pm on December 28.
The statement said the accused launched the attack to spread panic among people ahead of their hartal programme.
Following the incident, Assistant Sub-Inspector Abdul Malek Hawladar of Paltan Model police station filed the case against 43 identified and 20 to 30 suspected leaders and activists of the 20-party alliance, including BNP acting secretary general, as well as BNP standing committee members MK Anwar and Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia, Joint Secretaries General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Amanullah Aman, and Barkatullah Bulu, and Jamaat-e-Islami acting president Md Mokbul Hossain under the Explosive Substances Act.
On January 6, Fakhrul was arrested by the Detective Branch of police immediately after he stepped out of the National Press Club after an overnight stay.
Later, he was charged with provoking his party members to commit acts of violence in front of Baitul Mukarram Mosque in the capital on January 4 in another case filed with the same police station.