CT News Online
As many as 950 leaders and activists of the BNP and its
affiliates have received jail sentences in 67 cases in Dhaka in recent weeks.
Just in
November, 615 leaders and activists of the opposition party were sentenced to
jail in 33 cases, mostly filed in the Dhaka metropolitan and other district
courts. Many of these cases were recent, while some date back to 2015 and 2016.
The Dhaka
Metropolitan Police did not provide a count of the number of party activists
that had been jailed. The number was instead tallied from lawyers who support
the BNP and from media reports.
Lawyers Masud Ahmed Talukdar,
Moslehuddin Jashim, Syed Joynul Abedin Mejbah, Abul Kalam Khan, Nuruzzaman
Tapan, and Neehar Hossain Faruk, who represented the defendants in some of
these cases, provided the information.
The
majority of these cases charged the accused for illegal gatherings, barring
police from performing their duties, vandalism, arson attacks, explosives
attacks and other forms of sabotage.
The convicts included party leaders, both senior and local, and activists. Most did not hold a position of any significant power in the party.
DCT/OL/SMKN/END
