A judge has thrown out the opposition BNP’s plea to bring criminal charges against 20 people, including Jubo League General Secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil and State Minister for Industries Kamal Ahmed Majumder, in connection to clashes during a rally in Dhaka's Mirpur.
Advocate Md Omar Faruque Faruqi, general secretary of the BNP-aligned lawyers’ body Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, lodged the complaint with Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain heard the plea before rejecting it, saying he did not find any merit in it, reports bdnews24.com.
The petition sought to bring charges against almost 500 unidentified suspects over the incident, Faruqi’s lawyer Kalam Khan said.
A number of Awami League leaders, including Dhaka-16 MP Ellias Uddin Mollah, were also named in the complaint. Ellias and Kamal Majumder are MPs from Mirpur while Nikhil’s political career is based in the area.
Separate rallies held by the Awami League and BNP in close proximity to each other escalated into skirmishes in Mirpur’s Pallabi on Sept 15. The BNP and its supporters gathered to protest against the rising prices of daily commodities and fuel oil.
According to the complaint, nearly 500 Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League leaders and activists, including Nikhil, Kamal and Ellias, carried out an attack on the BNP rally, leaving several party leaders and activists injured.
“The ruling party activists used various weapons with the intention for murder,” Faruqi said in the petition, which named eight witnesses.
Jubo League leader Nikhil refuted the allegations brought by the BNP lawyer, claiming that no Awami League leaders and activists were present at Mirpur when the clashes took place. “We respect the law and will fight the allegations legally.”
“The BNP has been practising politics of violence since its inception. They deal in falsehoods,” added Nikhil.
“The people of Bangladesh have seen their involvement with militant organisations in 2014 and 2015.”