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| Bangladesh |
| Top BNP leaders appear in court today for bail |
| 2012-05-16 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Leaders and activists of BNP are anxious as 37 top opposition leaders appear before a trial court in Dhaka today in an arson case filed with Tejgoan Police Station. The counsels of the accused will lodge bail petitions, but the party leaders fear the accused might be sent to jail as the government seems to have taken a hard line against the opposition. "We will go to the court tomorrow [Wednesday] and are ready for any situation," BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a meeting of party leaders at the party's central office in Nayapaltan. Party insiders said the leaders and activists have already been instructed to be present at its central office today to stage instant protest if the accused are sent to jail. Some big shots hinted that the BNP-led 18-party alliance might enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... if the opposition leaders land in jail. Two cases were filed with Tejgaon and Ramna cop shoppes on April 29 for torching a bus in front of Prime Minister's Office in Tejgaon and a blast at the Bangladesh Secretariat recently. Earlier on May 7, the accused leaders in the arson case appeared before the High Court seeking bail. But the two-member HC bench delivered dissenting orders on seven bail petitions. |
| Posted by:Fred |