BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mirza Abbas have been taken to court following their arrests on charges of inciting attacks on police and detonations of improvised explosives at Naya Paltan.
Security at Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court premises was heightened ahead of the senior politicians' arrival at 4 pm on Friday following 10 hours of police interrogation, according to bdnews24.com.
The BNP's secretary general and standing committee member were detained in the early hours of Friday. "The charge against them is that they incited and planned barbaric attacks on police, including the throwing of crude bombs. We received this information after interrogating them,” said Harun-or-Rashid, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch.
Meanwhile, pro-BNP lawyers launched a demonstration at the court premises in protest against the arrest of the party leaders, claiming police asked them “move away” from the court grounds.
Senior lawyer Borhan Uddin, the former president of the BNP-aligned lawyers association, said around 20 of them were “peacefully" demonstrating at the court premises before an inspector from Kotwali Police Station asked them to leave, triggering the protest.
The protesting lawyers also demanded the release of Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas.