People of greater Noakhali staged a demonstration in the city’s Nayapaltan area on Friday protesting the arrest of BNP Publicity Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie followed by torture in police custody.

Several hundred people, under the banner of Greater Noakhali Jatiyatabadi Forum, in Dhaka, brought out a procession in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office in the afternoon.

Later, they staged a demonstration in the area, led by BNP’s assistant rural development affairs secretary Bazlul Karim Chowdhury Abed.

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Addressing the programme, Abed said it is unimaginable that a former MP like Annie was arrested by breaking the door of his house in the dead of night and tortured in custody.

He urged the government to take action against the law enforcers who physically assaulted the BNP leader.

Abed also demanded the government immediately release Annie and withdraw the ‘false’ cases filed against him.

Police arrested Annie, a former Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Lakshmipur-3 constituency, from his Dhanmondi residence early Wednesday.

Later, a Dhaka court placed Annie on 4 days' remand in a case filed over obstructing government works and torching vehicles.

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Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rashidul Alam passed the order after hearing a plea seeking a seven-day remand filed by the investigating officer of the case.

During the hearing, Annie told the court that police hit him, shoved him around, and mentally tortured him at the police station. "I am neither a thief nor a dacoit. So, why should they (police) break into my house, and drag me down the stairs in the dead of the night?" a weeping Annie asked the court.