A Bangladeshi court today sent a key BNP leader to jail on several charges of violence and sabotage during the main opposition party's violent campaign against the government earlier this year.
"Rejected," metropolitan magistrate Maruf Hossain pronounced as BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir's lawyers pleaded for his bail as he appeared in the dock at the crowded court complex here.
Hossain ordered Alamgir, 67, to be jailed saying it was beyond his authority to grant bail since the Supreme Court had already denied the BNP leader's plea seeking extension of his bail period.
Alamgir was earlier arrested in January when his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) launched a violent nationwide anti-government campaign coinciding with the first anniversary of the 2014 general elections which it had boycotted.
He, however, secured bail on July 13 from the Supreme Court initially for six weeks on medical grounds which also allowed him to be treated abroad.
The apex court subsequently extended his temporary freedom in two more phases until yesterday when a bench of the highest court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha asked Alamgir to surrender before the trial court as he sought further extension of the bail.
Officials said the magistrate court sent him to jail on three specific cases of arson and vandalism during the BNP's countrywide blockade though he stood accused in 89 cases but availed ad-interim bail orders from the High Court as well as lower courts in rest of the cases.
Witnesses said armed police units and plainclothesmen enforced extra vigil at the court complex as Alamgir appeared while he was sent to the Dhaka Central Jail under heavy escorts while upset lawyers who support BNP staged a protest march inside around the court complex.
Alamgir's detention came as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government attacked the BNP and its close ally fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, accusing them of the recent murders of two foreigners, bomb attacks on a Shia shrine and attacks on publishers and bloggers.
Hasina had alleged that "orders" for fomenting unrest in Bangladesh came from London, an oblique reference to her arch rival - ex-premier and BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman as both are currently living in Britain.
