2,500 BNP men sued over Wednesday's clash with cops in Nayapaltan, 480 arrested
Police have filed five cases against over 2,500 Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders and activists, mentioning 885 names, in connection with the clash between BNP activists and police in the capital's Nayapaltan area on Wednesday (7 December).
Around 470 people including top BNP leaders have been named in the case filed with Paltan Police Station under the explosive act.
Besides, another 2000 unnamed BNP men have been made accused in the case, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner (Media and Public Relations) Faruq Hossain told The Business Standard.
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In the case filed with Shahjahanpur police station, 250 BNP activists, mentioning 52 names, were made accused and another case was filed with Motijheel police station against 28 more activists of the party.
A total of 335 BNP men were named in another two cases filed with Ramna Police Station over Wednesday's clash with police, Bayzidur Rahman, assistant commissioner of Ramna zone told The Business Standard.
Meanwhile, a total of 480 BNP men were arrested till now over the three cases, DMP Media Center said.
DMP said that a total of 47 police got injured in yesterday's clash.
Amid political tensions brewing ahead of the BNP's 10 December Dhaka rally, police and BNP activists clashed in front of the party's Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital on Wednesday.
Following the clashes that lasted more than three hours on Wednesday afternoon, at least 20 persons were brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital till 8pm, according to Bachchu Mia, a police inspector and also in-charge of Dhaka Medical College Hospital police outpost.
"Doctors pronounced one of them, 30-year-old Mokbul Hossain, dead," he said, adding that the body bore multiple pellet injuries.
Talking to reporters in front of the party headquarters in the evening, however, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed that two BNP men died in the clashes and at least 100 partymen got injured. As the top BNP leader was talking to journalists, police cordoned off the Nayapaltan BNP office, where the party plans to hold the political gathering after a series of divisional rallies across the country.
Dozens of BNP leaders and activists, including the party's Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Publicity Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, former Chhatra Dal president Abdul Kader Bhuiyan Jewel and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Special Assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, were among those detained from the scene on Wednesday.
BNP activists started to gather at Nayapaltan on Wednesday noon to make enquiries about the political programme, said BNP leaders, as the venue of the rally was yet to be finalised by the authorities.
A large number of police personnel were deployed on nearby roads. According to witnesses, the gathering at one point blocked the road as police asked them to leave. As they did not do so, police fired tear shells and blank shots to try and disperse the crowd around 3pm. The BNP men retaliated by throwing bricks at the policemen.
