Khaleda Zia freshly charged over 2015 blockade violence

TIL Desk/World/Dhaka-Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia was freshly charged in two cases over violence during last year’s blockade violence in Dhaka. The former prime minister was named as the instigator of violence in the two chargesheets filed at Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Sunday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque set May 31 and June 1 for the approval and signing of the chargesheets, court police official Mirash Uddin said. Police filed one of the cases over vandalising and torching a bus at the bypass next to Gabtoli bus terminal on March 3, 2015.

A total of 50 people were named in the chargesheet including BNP Joint Secretary General Amanullah Aman and Khaleda’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan. The other case was started over the vandalism and torching of a bus in Baganbarhi on February 10, 2015.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised justice for the victims of violence, saying the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami unleashed the violence in the name of protests to destabilise the country. BNP leaders, on the other hand, have been alleging the cases against Khaleda aim to keep her away from politics.