Bangladesh court sends key BNP leader to jail

A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sent a key BNP leader to jail on several charges of violence and sabotage during the main opposition party’s violent campaign against the government earlier this year.

“Rejected,” metropolitan magistrate Maruf Hossain pronounced as BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s lawyers pleaded for his bail as he appeared in the dock at the crowded court complex here.

Hossain ordered Alamgir, 67, to be jailed saying it was beyond his authority to grant bail since the Supreme Court had already denied the BNP leader’s plea seeking extension of his bail period. Alamgir was earlier arrested in January when his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) launched a violent nationwide anti-government campaign coinciding with the first anniversary of the 2014 general elections which it had boycotted.