Arrest
Fakhrul, Abbas, 5 other BNP leaders seek bail, hearing tomorrow
A Dhaka court on Sunday fixed December 12 (Monday) for the hearing of the bail petitions of seven top BNP leaders including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan.
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury passed the order when their counsel sought bail.
Read: 5 BNP MPs submit resignation to JS Speaker
The remaining five who sought bail are BNP’s Dhaka south city unit convener Abdus Salam, Publication Secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, joint secretary Khairul Kabir Khokon, former organizing secretary Fazlul Haque Milon and party leader Selim Reza Habib.
On Friday, a Dhaka court sent Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas to jail rejecting their bail petitions in the case.
In the early hours of Friday, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital city.
Later they were shown arrested in a case filed under the Explosive Substances Act with Paltan police station over Wednesday’s clash.
Read: BNP 'half-defeated' through holding rally at Golapbagh: Obaidul Quader
They were accused of instigating, planning and directing an attack on police, crude bomb explosion, destroying public property and lives, he added.
On Wednesday, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office ahead of its December 10 rally.
On Thursday, a Dhaka court sent 445 BNP leaders and activists including Annie and Salam to jail in two cases filed over Wednesday’s violence.
Officials predict more arrests over German far-right plot
German officials say they expect more people to be detained in connection with an alleged far-right plan to topple the government that saw 25 people rounded up Wednesday, including a self-styled prince, a retired paratrooper and a judge.
The plot was allegedly hatched by people linked to the so-called Reich Citizens movement, which rejects Germany’s postwar constitution and the legitimacy of the government.
Georg Meier, the top security official in Thuringia state, told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Thursday that he expects a second wave of people being detained as authorities review evidence.
Meier accused the far-right Alternative for Germany party of fueling conspiracy theories like those that allegedly motivated the plotters detained across the country this week.
Those held include a former Alternative for Germany lawmaker, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who is also a Berlin judge. The party condemned the alleged coup plans.
Read: Germany commits EUR 15 million to pay poor rural people for their work to preserve ecosystems
Also detained was Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, whom prosecutors consider one of the two ringleaders of the plot. The 71-year-old member of the House of Reuss continues to use the title of ‘prince’ despite Germany abolishing any formal role for royalty more than a century ago.
Some in Germany have questioned whether the suspected extremists would actually have been able to pull off any serious attack.
But Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, said it would be wrong to underestimate such groups, especially if their members include people who are trained to use firearms, such as soldiers or police officers.
The head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police, Holger Muench, said officers searched about 150 locations across the country. At about 50 locations they found weapons, he told public broadcaster ZDF late Wednesday, without elaborating.
Read: Germany postpones decision on mandatory speed limits
Muench said he expected the raids and detentions to continue in the coming days.
Thomas Haldenwang, who heads Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV, said authorities had been monitoring the group since the spring of this year.
The threat posed by the group had gradually become more concrete as members had obtained weapons, he said.
Germany is highly sensitive to far-right extremism because of its Nazi past and repeated acts of violence carried out by neo-Nazis in recent years, including the killing of a regional politician and the deadly attack on a synagogue in 2019.
Two years ago, far-right extremists taking part in a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions tried and failed to storm the Bundestag building in Berlin.
Over 300 BNP leaders, activists held: Police
Police said they detained over 300 leaders and activists of the BNP from the party's Nayapaltan headquarters after a clash between the party men and law enforcers on Wednesday afternoon.
The detained leaders included BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Publication Secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie.
After the raid on the BNP office following the clash, Harun or Rashid, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) additional commissioner (detective branch), told the media that many of the detainees were accused in different cases, and there are arrest warrants against them.
Also, police seized 15 unexploded cocktails from the BNP office and 1.50 lakh bottles of drinking water during the raid, he added.
Earlier Biplob Kumar Sarkar, joint commissioner (operations) of DMP, told the media that they stayed in Nayapaltan to deal with the overall situation with "patience and were provoked at one stage."
"The BNP men hurled bombs at the law enforcers from the third floor of the party's central office during a chase and counter chase. We seized many bombs that were kept at the office for carrying out subversive activities," he added.
In the afternoon, the BNP activists gathered in front of their headquarters and started chanting slogans at Nayapaltan. Sensing that the situation could turn volatile, police asked the party members to leave the area immediately. This resulted in a heated argument, and at one point police started beating the activists with batons to disperse them.
Taking shelter in nearby lanes, the BNP activists started throwing brickbats in return. To quell the protesters, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets towards them, which injured around 50 people.
Read more: BNP to stage countrywide demo Thursday protesting police action at Nayapaltan
Falling sick due to inhaling tear gas, some 200 activists took shelter inside the BNP office. Later, police conducted a raid inside the office and arrested about 300 activists along with party leaders.
Also, police obstructed Mahmudur Rahman Manna-led Ganatantra Mancha at the Nightingale Intersection of the capital from advancing towards Nayapaltan.
Read more: We know why 'BNP is orchestrating violence' ahead of December 10: Quader
BNP to stage countrywide demo Thursday protesting police action at Nayapaltan
The BNP will stage demonstrations in all cities and district towns on Thursday to protest "barbaric" police action and mass arrests of the party's leaders and activists in front of its Nayapaltan central office on Wednesday.
Party standing committee took the decision at an emergency meeting at night, said a press release.
Following the police action at Nayapaltan, the BNP standing committee, the highest policy-making body of the party, sat in the meeting to work out its next course of action.
The BNP policymakers strongly condemned and protested the "unnecessary, unwarranted and cowardly" police attack and firing that left a Swechchasebak Dal leader dead and injured many others centring the party's December 10 rally.
They also protested the arrest of a good number of party leaders and activists.
The meeting demanded the unconditional release of the attested party leaders and activists and called upon the police administration to stop such attacks, arrests, harassment and repressive and suppressive acts.
Read more: We know why 'BNP is orchestrating violence' ahead of December 10: Quader
Meanwhile, the BNP postponed the special press conference that was scheduled to be held at a city hotel on Thursday at 3:30pm.
BNP medical cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan said the fresh date and time of the press conference will be announced later.
Read more: Over 300 BNP leaders, activists held: Police
'Planning armed coup': German police arrest 25 suspected far-right extremists
Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across much of Germany on Wednesday against suspected far-right extremists who allegedly sought to overthrow the state in an armed coup.
Federal prosecutors said some 3,000 officers conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states against adherents of the so-called Reich Citizens movement. Some members of the grouping reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for the overthrow of the government.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann described the raids as an “anti-terrorism operation,” adding that the suspects may have planned an armed attack on institutions of the state.
Prosecutors said 22 German citizens were detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization.” Three other people, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the organization, they said.
Weekly Der Spiegel reported that locations searched include the barracks of Germany’s special forces unit KSK in the southwestern town of Calw. The unit has in the past been scrutinized over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.
Read: Germany commits EUR 15 million to pay poor rural people for their work to preserve ecosystems
Federal prosecutors declined to confirm or deny that the barracks was searched.
Along with detentions in Germany, prosecutors said that one person was detained in the Austrian town of Kitzbuehel and another in the Italian city of Perugia.
Prosecutors said those detained are alleged to last year have formed a “terrorist organization with the goal of overturning the existing state order in Germany and replace it with their own form of state, which was already in the course of being founded.”
The suspects were aware that their aim could only be achieved by military means and with force, prosecutors said.
They are alleged to have believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy theories consisting of narratives from the so-called Reich Citizens as well as QAnon ideology,” according to a statement by prosecutors. They added that members of the group also believe Germany is ruled by a so-called ‘deep state;’ similar baseless claims about the United States were made by former President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors identified the suspected ringleaders as Heinrich XIII P. R. and Ruediger v. P., in line with German privacy rules. Der Spiegel reported that the former was a well-known 71-year-old member of a minor German noble family, while the latter was a 69-year-old former paratrooper.
Read: Germany postpones decision on mandatory speed limits
Federal prosecutors said Heinrich XIII P. R., whom the group planned to install as Germany’s new leader, had contacted Russian officials with the aim of negotiating a new order in the country once the German government was overthrown. He was allegedly assisted in this by a Russian woman, Vitalia B.
“According to current investigations there is no indication however that the persons contacted responded positively to his request,” prosecutors said.
A further person detained by police Wednesday was identified by prosecutors as Birgit M.-W. Der Spiegel reported that the woman is a judge and former lawmaker with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
The party, known by its German acronym AfD, has increasingly come under scrutiny by German security services due to its ties with extremists.
BNP activists in Khulna say police carrying out mass arrests
Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party's Khulna city say they have left their houses to avoid arrests as police have intensified drives ahead of the opposition party’s mass rally in Dhaka on December 10.
Police are raiding houses of BNP leaders and activists every night by preparing an area-wise list of those who are set to participate in the Dhaka programme, they said.
Police raided the houses of numerous leaders and activists, and arrested at least 50 of them in the last four days.
Read: Nothing to be worried about BNP’s Dec 10 rally, says Momen
Police arrested Shariful Islam Tipu, in charge of the Metropolitan BNP office, when he went to the police station with food for the arrested activists on Tuesday.
Khulna Metropolitan BNP convener Shafiqul Alam Mana said that political leaders and activists are being arrested and harassed in the name of a special operation to thwart BNP's mass rally in Dhaka on December 10.
Hasan Al Mamun, officer-in-charge (OC) of Khulna Sadar police station, told UNB, "We are conducting operation as part of an anti-terrorism drive."
Read: No confusion over Dec 10 rally in Dhaka, says Fakhrul
Though no directives have been given from central leaders, activists are going to Dhaka to avoid arrests, Shafiqul Alam Tuhin, member secretary of Metropolitan BNP, said.
Mother arrested over 2 kids burnt to death in Madaripur
The mother of two children, who were burnt to death in a closed house in Sadar upazila of the district on Monday morning, was arrested in this connection from the capital’s Kakrail area on Tuesday.
She was identified as Purnima.
Monwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said an intelligence team led by Sub Inspector Tanmoy Mondal arrested her from the capital and brought back to the police station.
The children—Mithu and Manob--were burnt to death at the closed house at Jhikarhati village of the upazila. They were aged between one and two.
Read more: Arrest warrants issued against BNP's Rizvi, Ishraque
Mother Purnima and their grandmother went out of the house putting the door of the house under lock and key in the morning.
Someone noticed smoke billowing from the house and when neighbours broke open the door, they found the children’s charred bodies inside.
Though the reason behind the fire could not be known immediately, Purnima and her mother fled the area soon after the incident.
Read more: Jubo Dal president, VP arrested while returning from Rajshahi rally
Later, the victims’ aunt Ratna Rani filed a case in this connection.
Jubo Dal president, VP arrested while returning from Rajshahi rally
Three BNP leaders including Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, president of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, the BNP's youth front, were arrested while returning from the party's divisional rally held in Rajshahi on Saturday.
The two other arrestees are Jubo Dal vice president Noor Islam Nayan and Tuku's personal assistant Mokhles.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi confirmed this matter at 11:10 pm Saturday night.
He said that when they reached Dhaka's Amin Bazar area on their way back from the Rajshahi public rally, DB police waylaid and arrested them.
Rizvi strongly condemned and protested this incident and demanded their immediate release.
Read more: Crude bomb blast in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan office
Sources said police have started an arrest drive across the country ahead of BNP's rally scheduled on December 10. A search operation is also underway in the capital.
After the cocktail explosion in front of the BNP central office in the capital’s Nayapaltan on Saturday evening, police arrested several people from there as well, sources added.
BNP's Naya Paltan office has also been kept under police surveillance.
Read more: BNP won't be allowed to orchestrate violence surrounding December 10 rally: Quader
Ayat murder: Accused again put on 7-day remand
A Chattogram court once again placed Abir Ali, the suspected killer of seven-year-old girl Ayat, on a seven-day remand on Monday.
The court passed the order when police produced Abir before Judge Mohammad Abdul Halim of Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Court upon expiry of his 2-day remand, said Selim Ullah Chowdhury, lawyer of the plaintiff.
On November 26, Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) sought a 10-day remand for Abir at the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Saddam Hossain.
After a hearing, the court put him on a two-day remand.
In the morning, the accused was brought to the court amid tight security. Thousands of people gathered in the court area since morning. When accused Abir tried to get down from the police van in the afternoon, people chanted slogans demanding his death penalty.
At one stage, the angry people tried to snatch the accused from police custody to beat him that made it difficult for police to bring the accused out of the prison van and take him to the court.
Read: 1 arrested involving murder of 7-yr-old girl in Ctg
On November 25, PBI arrested Abir for kidnapping and murdering seven-year-old Alina Islam Ayat 10 days after she went missing.
Illias Khan, PBI inspector in Chattogram, said that Abir Ali, an ex-tenant of the victim’s family, abducted the girl on November 15 for ransom on her way to a mosque where she used to learn Arabic at Bandartila area in Chattogram.
Ali strangled the girl to death and later he chopped her into six pieces after taking to a residence on Akmal Ali Road in the city. He subsequently dumped the body wrapped with two bags at a beach in the city’s Kattali area, the PBI officer said.
Read: Militants' escape: Another put on 4-day remand
The victim’s father, Sohel Rana, lodged a general diary at the local police station after she went missing, police said.
DB arrests 6 impersonators
The Detective Branch (DB) of police have arrested six people, who impersonated DB and members of different law enforcement agencies to commit robbery, in the capital.
The arrestees— Sohag Majhi ,28, Delwar ,26, Zainal Hossain,28, Sohail ,27, Johnny ,32 and Aziz ,57--were apprehended from Dhaka's Savar and Jatrabari and Patuakhali on Friday night.
Harun-or-Rashid, additional commissioner of Detective Branch (DB) of DMP disclosed the matter in a press conference organised at DMP's media center at Minto Road in the capital on Saturday afternoon.
The law enforcers also recovered Tk 20 lakhs, a microbus and a motorcycle from their possession.
Earlier on Nov 13, an organized gang of robbers posing as Detective Branch officials made away with Tk 85 lakh at South Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital in broad daylight, said the DB officer.
Read: Escape of militants from court premises: CTTC arrests 1
Later, a case was filed at South Keraniganj police station following a complaint lodged by victim Keramot Ali.
Following the case, a team of DB conducted a drive in Savar's Kaundia area first and arrested 4 people and later two more from Jatrabari and Patuakhali, added DB chief.