BNP activists clash with police, AL men

Staff Reporter:>>>

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) activists have locked in clashes with BNP activists escorting BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia to a makeshift court in Bakshibazar of the capital.

As the former prime minister reached the Moghbazar crossing, several hundreds of BNP activists joined her motorcade, slowing the pace of Khaleda’s vehicle.

But just as the motorcade crossed the Moghbazar crossing, it was met with a stones hurled from one side of the road. BNP activists retaliated and clashes ensued.

Details of the clashes were not known immediately.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia left her Gulshan residence to appear in the make-shift court in Old Dhaka’s Bakshibazar that is set to deliver its verdict in a graft case against her today.

Khaleda Zia started around 11:45am from Gulshan as the city witnessed massive presence of law enforcement.

The authorities have strengthened security around the court on the Alia Madrasa ground in Bakshibazar area for the announcement of judgement in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The court on 25 January set 8 February to deliver the verdict in the case that implicated Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia, her son and senior BNP vice chairman Tarique Rahman and four others.

The ACC filed the graft case, during the quasi-military regime of Fakhruddin Ahmed in July 2008, accusing them of misappropriating Tk 21 million that had come as grants from a foreign bank for orphans.

The four other accused are former BNP lawmaker Salimul Haq Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, former principal secretary to the prime minister Kamal Uddin Siddique and nephew of late president Ziaur Rahman, Mominur Rahman.