BNP leaders Altaf Hossain, Major Hafiz jailed in 2011 sabotage case

Former home minister and BNP Vice Chairman Air Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed have been jailed for 21 months in a sabotage case filed in 2011.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury pronounced the verdict on Thursday.

BNP Law Affairs Secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal said since 28 October, some 23,460 leaders have been arrested, and 684 cases have been filed. In the last 16 weeks, 1,482 people have been sentenced to various jail terms.

The court also fined them Tk5,000 each, a failure to pay which will result in an additional month of imprisonment.

Six other BNP men have also been jailed in the case. They are Maj (retd) Md Hanif, MA Awal Khan, Md Russell, Moinul Islam, Babul Hossain alias Babu, and Alamgir Biswas alias Raju.

Among them, Maj (retd) Md Hanif has been jailed for 21 months while the rest have been sentenced to 42 months of imprisonment and fined Tk5,000 each.

The court also acquitted 11 other accused in the case as the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence against them.

According to case statements, the accused persons held a rally in Dhaka's Mohakhali area on 4 June 2011 and obstructed police in the conduct of their duties. They also assaulted policemen and vandalised and torched vehicles.

Kamrul Hasan Talukdar, sub-inspector of Gulshan Police Station, submitted the charge sheet in the case on 29 April 2014.
On 25 April 2022, the court framed charges and commenced the trial in the case.

Verdict on graft case against Mirza Abbas deferred

A Dhaka court has rescheduled the delivery of the verdict in a 2007 graft case filed against BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas to 24 January.

Judge Monjurul Imam of the Dhaka Special Judge's Court 6 set the fresh date yesterday, said Zahidul Islam, bench assistant of the court.

During the trial, 24 prosecution witnesses testified in court.

The BNP has alleged that all are politically motivated cases.