A court in Dhaka has deferred the hearing of indictment against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a case filed over the 2015 arson of a bus in the capital.
The former prime minister and 37 others stand accuse of firebombing a bus at Jatrabari’sKatherpul, when the BNP-led alliance was enforcing a countywide blockade of road, railways and waterways.
On Thursday (Oct 24), the Dhaka Special Trial Tribunal-6, set up near the central jail at Keraniganj, deferred the hearing until Jan 16 next year following the defence’s plea citing a High Court freeze on the trial’s proceedings.
Twenty-nine people were injured in the incident on Jan 16 that year. One of them succumbed to their injuries later at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
A case was started by the Jatrabaripolice over the attack on Jan 24 that year. The Detective Branch, which later took over the probe, pressed charges against 38 people in May 2015.
The other BNP leaders accused in the case include Senior Joint Secretary General RuhulKabir Rizvi, Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nobi Khan Sohel, former joint general secretaries AmanullahAman and BarkatullahBulu, Chairperson’s Advisers KhandakarMahbub Hossain and Shawkat Mahmud, Press Secretary to the BNP chief Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel and Special Assistant to Chairperson Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas.