Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP Secretary General, and Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas were granted bail by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in a sabotage case filed against them. On Sunday morning, a four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Hasan Faiz Siddiqui passed the order. At the same time, the High Court was asked to settle the rule issued on the bail question within 30 days.
One person was killed and hundreds were injured in a clash between the police and the BNP leaders and activists who had gathered in Nayapaltan on December 7 amid anxiety and excitement over the BNP’s divisional assembly and location in Dhaka on December 10. Later, the police raided the office after alleging that hand grenades were thrown from the central office of BNP. Hundreds of activists including some central leaders were arrested. Although Fakhrul was not arrested that day, he was arrested from his house the next night, and Mirza Abbas was also arrested the same night. The next day on December 9, they were arrested and sent to court in the case of assault and incitement on the police.
On January 3, the High Court granted six-month bail to Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas and ruled on their regular bail. The next day, on January 4, the state applied to the chamber court to suspend the bail order. As a result, the release of Fakhrul-Abbas was paused even after bail from the High Court. The Chamber Court referred the State’s petition to the regular bench of the Appellate Division for hearing.
