The prisons authorities on Friday shifted the BNP acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, and 29 other leaders of the 18-Party Alliance, arrested on Wednesday in an arson attack case, to the suburban Kashimpur Central Jail.
The inspector general (prisons), Brigadier General Mohammad Ashraful Islam Khan, told the news agency that the 30 leaders were sent to Kashimpur because Dhaka Central Jail could not accommodate them.
The jailor of Dhaka Central Jail, Mahbubul Islam, said the leaders were shifted to Kashimpur in two phases after 1:00pm.
In the first phase 23 of the leaders, who were not granted division status, were moved to the Kashimpur High-Security Prison Cell.
The jailor of the cell, Abul Bashar, said that the leaders reached the cell around 2:30pm.
IG (prisons) Khan said seven of the 14 leaders, who had been detained in the arson case and granted division status, were sent to two parts of the Kashimpur Central Jail in the second phase.
The jailor of Dhaka Central Jail, Mahbubul Islam, said the seven leaders were taken to Kashimpur in separate prison vans.
BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, self reliance affairs secretary Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, students affair secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed and Bangladesh Jatiya Party president Andaleeve Rahman Partho were in one van, he said.
BNP standing committee members Khandker Mosharraf Hossain and ASM Hannan Shah were in the other van, he added.
Both vans reached Kashimpur around 5:30pm, the prison official said.
BNP’s education affairs secretary Khairul Kabir Khokon and two others, detained during Thursday’s general strike, were already sent to the Kashimpur High-Security Prison Cell along with 19 others on Wednesday.
The 23 leaders of the opposition alliance charged in the arson case, who were sent to the high-security prison cell earlier in the first phase includes Jatiya Ganatantrik Party president Shafiul Alam Prodhan, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and general secretary
Amirul Islam Khan, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal general secretary Saiful Alam and BNP leader Kamruzzaman Ratan.
Jailor Islam said the seven others who received divisions had been kept at the Dhaka Central Jail.
They are BNP vice-chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, standing committee members MK Anwar, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, Mirza Abbas, joint secretary general Amanullah Aman, organising secretary Fazlul Haque Milon and international affairs secretary Nazim Uddin Alam.
On Wednesday, a Dhaka court sent Fakhrul and 32 other opposition leaders to jail after refusing them bail in a case filed over torching of a bus in front of the Prime Minister’s Office during a countrywide shutdown on April 29.
The leaders failed to get bail after surrendering to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in the morning. The High Court had earlier rejected them bail and ordered them to surrender to the trial court.
A case was filed with the Tejgaon police station against 44 leaders and activists of the BNP and its like-minded parties on charges of torching a vehicle in front of the Prime Minister’s Office during the countrywide shutdown on April 29 protesting against the ‘disappearance’ of one of the party’s organising secretaries, M Ilias Ali.
Detective Branch of police on May 10 submitted charge sheet against Fakhrul and 45 others of the opposition alliance in the case filed under Speedy Trial Act.
Kashimpur’s Dhaka Central Jail Unit-2 jailor Subhash Chandra Saha said five 18-party alliance leaders including Mirza Fakhurl were kept in the ‘Surma Bhaban’ reserved for division status prisoners.
Three leaders — Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and assistant secretaries general Abdul Quader Molla and Mohammad Kamruzzaman — and BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman’s friend Gias Uddin Al Mamun are also kept in the same building as ‘special prisoners’.