Nearly 10 hours after his detention, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was shown arrested in a case filed over vandalising Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan’s residence during his party’s grand rally on Saturday.
Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Faruk Hossain said the BNP Secretary General was shown arrested in a case filed with Ramna Police Station in connection with ransacking the Chiefs Justice’s house.
Later, he said Fakhrul was produced before a Dhaka CMM court around 8:10pm.
Detective Branch (DB) of the DMP detained Fakhrul from his Gulshan residence on Sunday morning.
Read: BNP’s central leaders can’t avoid responsibility for Saturday's violence: Home Minister
Amid BNP’s hartal, a group DB raided Fakhrul’s Gulshan-2 house and detained him around 9:20 am said BNP media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.
Later, he was taken to the DB’s Mintoo Road office.
Fakhrul’s wife Rahat Ara Begum said a team of DB police came to their house in the morning and talked to Fakhrul and others.
She said the law enforcers first took away all the CCTV camera devices and footage from the building of their house.
Read: BNP-Police Clashes: At least 70 BNP leaders, activists injured in N'ganj
“Ten minutes later, they came back again and took him (Fakhrul) away,” Rahat Ara said.
She said Fakhrul is very ill and he has been undergoing treatment.
“I can't accept that a 75-year-old man will be taken away in this way. I hope they will release him after questioning,” Rahat Ara said.
The detention came as BNP called for a dawn-to-dusk nationwide hartal for Sunday to protest violence centering the party's grand rally at Nayapaltan on Saturday.
Fakhrul announced the shutdown after suspending the rally abruptly following violent clashes between law enforcers and opposition activists that killed at least two people, including a police constable and injured several hundred others.
Read: 'Attacks on Saturday, Sunday were pre-planned by BNP': Obaidul Quader
Half an hour after the start of BNP's much-talked-about grand rally at Nayapaltan, the party's leaders and workers locked into a clash with ruling party activists and law enforcers at Kakrail.
The BNP activists also reportedly attacked the Chief Justice’s house during the clash.
With the passage of time, violent clashes spread around Nayapaltan, forcing the BNP to abruptly call off the rally.