BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi was taken to the DB police headquarters yesterday afternoon, nearly 15 hours after his arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion from a hideout in the capital’s Baridhara area.
The arrest was made few hours after Rizvi had announced another 72-hour hartal amid the BNP-led alliance’s indefinite blockade, disregarding calls from different quarters to suspend the movement ahead of the SSC exams that begins tomorrow.
Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of legal and media wing of RAB, said the BNP leader had been arrested from house 98 of Park Road around 3am. RAB 1 handed him over to Badda police an hour later.
MA Jalil, OC of Badda police, said Rizvi had been shown arrested in an arson attack case.
He was taken to the DB headquarters on Mintoo Road around 5pm and is likely to be produced before the court today.
Sources in RAB said the house was owned by Katar Mostafa, a worker of Chittagong district unit BNP, who is now staying in Qatar.
However, it could not be confirmed immediately whether Rizvi had been staying at that house since January 7.
The case was filed after a bus had been torched allegedly by the blockade supporters in Bhatara area on January 26. As many as 28 BNP leaders including Rizvi and around 25 unnamed others have been made accused in the case.
Rizvi, also the acting office secretary, was carrying out the role of party spokesperson after the arrest of acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. He issued several statements regarding the government-ouster movement.
On January 3, a Detective Branch team picked him up from the BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters. Later he was taken in an ambulance to Apollo Hospitals. DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman claimed that the police had not arrested Rizvi but only helped him reach the hospital.
On January 7, Rizvi “fled” the hospital evading the eyes of the authorities and the law enforcers.
Later, the hospital authorities lodged a general diary with Bhatara police accusing the BNP leader of not paying the bills for treatment and a four-day stay there. Within few hours, a representative of Rizvi – who did not disclose his name to the authorities – paid the dues.
Meanwhile, police yesterday detained six leaders of Mohila Dal, the woman wing of the BNP, after coming out of the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office around 6:30pm and 7:20pm.
The detainees who include Khaleda Yeasmin, executive committee member of the BNP, were later taken to the Gulshan police station, OC Rafiqul Islam said.
Dhanmondi police around 9pm arrested Jahangir Sarder, a Jubo Dal leader, for his alleged involvement in sabotage activities, DMP DC Masudur said.
