A court in Cumilla has formally arrested BNP chief Khaleda Zia over the firebombing on a bus that left eight people killed three years ago.
On Sunday, a senior judicial magistrate accepted the prosecutor’s petition showing her arrest in the case.
Defence counsels have moved a bail petition, which the court is expected to hear on Tuesday.
A three times prime minister, Khaleda has been sentenced to five years in prison for misappropriating foreign donations made to an orphanage.

She has been serving the term at the old jailhouse at Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road since Feb 8, when the court convicted her of breaching trust by a public servant in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.
The BNP chief secured bail from the High Court, which, however, has been stayed by the Appellate Division until May 8 after the state and the Anti-Corruption Commission challenged the decision.
Sunday’s order by a court in Cumilla means, the BNP chief will require bail in the bus arson case before she can be released from prison.
Amid the BNP-led coalition’s countrywide shutdown and blockade in 2015, a bus was firebombed in Cumilla’s Chouddyagram Upazila on the night of Feb 3. Eight people died from burn injuries in the attack.
Following investigations, the local police started two cases — one for the killings and the other under the Explosives Act and the BNP chief has been accused in both of them.
Police filed charges against 78 people, including Khaleda in the murder case.
The court took charges in the murder case into cognisance and had issued a warrant against Khaleda.
Following the conviction in the graft case, the prosecutors pleaded to the court to formally arrest her in the case, when the court ordered jail authorities to produce Khaleda on Mar 28.
On Mar 31, the Cumilla court show caused the jail authorities as they failed produce the BNP chief.
On Sunday, the prison authorities told the court that the former prime minister’s physical condition did not allow her to travel from Dhaka.
The Cumilla court has fixed Apr 10 to hear the bail petition filed by Khaleda Zia’s counsels.