Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawyer-activists shouting slogans in front of the main gate of the high court against a court order for the arrest of BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, in Dhaka yesterday.
IANS/Dhaka
Hundreds of Bangladesh opposition workers took to the streets of Dhaka and other parts of the country yesterday, protesting the issuance of arrest warrant against former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s eldest son Tarique
Rahman, now living in London.
Clashes, explosions, torching and vandalism of vehicles were reported from the capital Dhaka where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government last week banned political rallies for one month.
Dozens of homemade bombs went off during violence, local TV reports said.
A court in Dhaka on Sunday issued an arrest warrant, saying it would ask Interpol to help detain Rahman, also a senior vice chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as he has been living in London. The prosecution filed an application before the Dhaka special judge’s court-3 earlier in the day seeking its directive to bring back him after issuing an arrest warrant against him with the help of Interpol.
Rahman was arrested on March 7, 2007 on charges laundering $3mn during the military-controlled caretaker government. He went to London after his release on bail in September 2008 for “treatment” reportedly on condition of not participating in any political activity during his stay there.
The court order also triggered a protest by lawyers loyal to the main opposition party who brought out procession on court premises yesterday.
Dhaka’s leading newspaper The Daily Star reported that Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of BNP, vandalised 10 vehicles in Laxmibazar area of old Dhaka.
Local television station Somoy reported explosions of eight cocktails and torching and vandalism of vehicles in Dhaka’s commercial district Motijheel and adjoining areas.
Police reportedly fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up protests.
The demonstrators responded by throwing brickbats. There were no immediate reports of injuries. A large number of law enforcers were seen guarding the Dhaka streets and the opposition headquarters adjoining areas to avoid any untoward incident.
Opposition chief Zia has often claimed political vendettas were to blame in both her sons’ prosecution.
Last year her youngest son, Arafat Rahman, now in Thailand, was sentenced to a six-year jail term also on corruption and money laundering charges. Since the end of her tenure in 2006, her eldest son Rahman faced 16 cases of corruption and extortion charges.
The arrest warrant was issued less than a week after Rahman was back in the news as he attended a BNP function on May 20 in East London, where he stressed the need for elections under a non-party caretaker system.
Hasina’s party, which has two-thirds majority in parliament, annulled the caretaker government system after Supreme Court on May 2011 repealed the 13th amendment to the country’s constitution through which the caretaker system was institutionalised in 1996 by the then BNP government under pressure from the then main opposition AL, now the ruling party.
Demanding restoration of the caretaker system, unconditional release of its leaders and protesting a recent ban on rallies for one month, Zia’s main 18-party opposition alliance on Sunday enforced a countrywide general strike.