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| Khaleda Zia |
Police in the capital Dhaka used batons and teargas to disperse the protesters, who set at least three vehicles on fire and damaged several more outside the office of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), according to the witnesses.
On Tuesday, a young BNP leader Ilias Ali, a former student leader and former lawmaker, disappeared with his car and driver near his Dhaka home.
Party chief Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, accused the government of “lifting Ilias Ali” to thwart an opposition campaign aimed at ousting the government and forcing early elections, not due before end of 2013.
The government denies this accusation. Home Minister Sahara Khatun told reporters yesterday that security agencies were trying to find Ali, but warned that authorities would not tolerate any violence over his disappearance.
Police and witnesses said the protesters had set off dozens of small explosive devices packed with splinters during the protest, and fought running battles with police deployed to restore order.
“At least 15 people were injured, three cars torched and several vehicles also damaged,” one witness said.
Police said they had fired teargas shells after the protesters turned on them.
BNP said three of its senior leaders including acting Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir were among those injured, without giving details.
Yesterday, BNP also staged a daylong strike in the northeast part of the country, Ali’s constituency and ancestral home, and called for a countrywide strike for Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh.
The High Court yesterday asked the police to report within 10 days on the whereabouts of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader M Ilias Ali.
Passing the interim order following a habeas corpus writ petition, a division bench comprising Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif also issued a ruling asking the government to explain why direction should not be given to produce Ilias before the court so that it may satisfy itself that he is not being held in custody without lawful authority or in an unlawful manner.
Tahsina Rushdi, Ilias’s wife, filed the habeas corpus writ petition claiming that police were detaining her husband illegally.
Former lawmaker and BNP organising secretary Ilias Ali along with his driver has been missing since Tuesday night. Banani police found his car abandoned in front of South Point School and College near Amtali crossing in Dhaka city’s Mahakhali area Wednesday afternoon.
BNP has called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike on Sunday blaming the government for the ‘forced disappearance’ of Ilias.
General strikes were also enforced yesterday in four districts of the Sylhet division. Barrister Maudud Ahmed appeared for the writ petitioner.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a surprise statement yesterday, blamed the main opposition for introducing a culture of killings and encounter killings in Bangladesh as well as shifting liability for these actions to others.
She also alleged that BNP was responsible for massive corruption although her own Minister Suranjit Sengupta is widely suspected to have recieved 7mn taka in bribes on April 9.
“The culture of killings and secret killings as well as corruption began during the tenure of BNP,” she said.
The prime minister was addressing a meet on the 40th anniversary of Bangladesh Krishak League held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC).
Referring to the disappearance of BNP leader M Ilias Ali, she said: “I know the pain of losing near and dear ones. I’ve sent the Home Minister and Inspector General of Police to the residence of the missing BNP leader to probe the incident.”
Sheikh Hasina said the past BNP governments during their tenure killed numerous Awami League leaders and workers after kidnapping them from their homes.
Another BNP leader Chowdhury Alam disappeared last year and his family members are yet to know his fate. They suspect, he was murdered.