A Dhaka court on Monday accepted the charge sheet submitted against 45 senior leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance, including acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, for setting a bus on fire during the general strike on April 29.
The Dhaka speedy trial court magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah, sent to jail BNP lawmaker AM Mahbubuddin Khokon, after rejecting his application for extension bail in the same case.
He was earlier granted bail till Monday in the arson case.
The court also issued warrants for the arrest of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami acting amir Maqbul Ahmed, assistant secretary general Nurul Islam Bulbul, pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee and pro-BNP student organisation Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Dhaka University unit joint secretary Obaidul Haque Nasir, as they had not surrendered to the court.
The court posted for June 6 the hearing in the framing of charges.
The order prompted lawyers loyal to the opposition alliance to register protests. They took out a procession on the court premises and chanted slogans demanding withdrawal of the case.
Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform of pro-BNP lawyers, decided to boycott all the judges’ and magistrates’ courts in Dhaka today as its general secretary Mahbubuddin Khokon was sent to jail.
Moving the application for Khokon, former law minister Moudud Ahmed argued that the former’s bail should continue as he had obtained ad interim anticipatory bail from the High Court, furnished bail bond to the speedy trial court and had not misused the bail.
Since Khokon is a lawmaker and the president has already summoned the budget session of parliament, he should not be denied bail, Moudud said.
The detective branch of police on May 10 submitted the charge sheet against  the 45 opposition leaders and activists to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in the case filed with Tejgaon police for the arson near the Prime Minister’s Office.
The speedy trial court on May 16 sent to jail 33 of the
accused leaders and activists, including Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP standing committee members MK Anwar, Hannan Shah, Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas and Gayeshwar Chanra Roy, Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed, Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman, BNP vice-chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, joint secretary general Amanullah Aman, organising secretary Fazlul Huq Milan, international affairs secretary Nazimuddin Alam and self-reliance affairs secretary Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, after they  surrendered to the court.
The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge, Mohammad Zahurul Haque, on May 17 posted for May 23 the hearing in the appeals filed by the detained 33 leaders against the speedy trial court’s order.
The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court on May 17 rejected an appeal filed by the detained BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi against the magistrate’s order passed on May 3 rejecting his bail petition in the same case.