Senior BNP leaders Mirza Abbas, Alal arrested

Police arrested BNP Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas and the party's Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal today, a DB official confirmed to The Business Standard.

Mirza Abbas was arrested from his Motijheel residence while Alal was arrested from a Dhaka Bank branch in Shaheenbag area of the capital on Tuesday (31 October), said the DB official.

They have been arrested in cases filed over violence in Nayapaltan  and vandalism of chief justice's residence during the BNP's grand rally on 28 October, DB sources said, adding that the arrestees are now being held in the DB office in Dhaka.

The arrests comes hours after a Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against Abbas in a graft case filed against him in 2007 earlier on the day.

The case was filed during the regime of the military-backed caretaker government over Abbas accumulating wealth beyond his known sources of income.

Mirza Abbas did not appear before the hearing today.

His lawyer appealed with a time petition, but this was dismissed by the court.

Judge Monjurul Imam set 2 November for arguments from the prosecution.

Abbas, born on 7 February 1951 in Kishoreganj, was the mayor of Dhaka City Corporation from 1991 to 1993. Son of businessman Abdur Razzak and Kamla Khatun, he also served as the Minister of Housing and Public Works from 2001 to 2006. He later served as the convener of the party's Dhaka city unit in 2014. In 2015, he collected his nomination form to contest as a mayoral candidate from Dhaka South City Corporation.

The BNP leader was imprisoned during the caretaker government regime from 2007 to 2008 on corruption charges.

Meanwhile, several cases have been filed against central leaders of the BNP, including Mirza Abbas, after a clash between police and BNP leaders and workers in the capital's Nayapaltan on 28 October. 

The party's general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been sent to jail after his arrest in a case filed over the 28 October violence.