DB raids BNP head office at midnight, recovers 100 crude bombs, 7 arrested
Around 100 crude bombs, 500 sticks and five to six bottles of petrol were recovered from the spot, the DB chief said, alongside seven being arrested
At least seven activists of the BNP and its affiliated organisations were arrested in a raid by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at the party's head office in the capital's Nayapaltan at midnight, police said.
Around 100 crude bombs, 500 sticks and five to six bottles of petrol were recovered from the spot, the DB chief said, alongside seven being arrested. "We have conducted the drive after a bus was set on fire in front of Jatiya Press Club," Detective Branch (DB) chief Harun Or Rashid, who led the raid, told journalists at press briefing later.
"A group is trying to divert the ongoing quota movement into a different direction. We have all the names and numbers of those responsible and we will arrest them soon," he said.
Former president of Chhatra Dal Ronakul Islam Shrabon is among the arrestees.
Law enforcers arrived at the BNP office shortly after a few explosions took place in front of it.
In an instant reaction following the raid, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said in a virtual conference that the government had unjustly raided the BNP office to divert the quota reform movement.
He also claimed everything that was "recovered" had actually been planted by law enforcers.