The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas were freed from jail on bail, 30-day after they were arrested in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Naya Paltan on December 8. Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas walked out of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj at about 6.00pm on Monday after the bail order reached the jail authorities, said their lawyer Kaiser Kamal. Hundreds of BNP leaders and activists were present in front of the jail gate at that time to receive their party leaders. The party men were seen chanting slogan and brought out a procession soon after the release of Fakhrul and Abbas.

Earlier on Sunday, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court order granting bail to Fakhrul and party standing committee member Abbas in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Nayapaltan on December 7 last year. On January 4, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Jahangir Hossain fixed Sunday for the hearing of the petition at the full-bench of the Appellate Division. The petition was filed on the same day with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court order granting bail to the two BNP leaders in the case.

The High Court granted six months’ bail to Fakhrul and Abbas, in the case on January 3. On December 8, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital, a day before the party’s much-talked about rally in the capital. Later, they were arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan on December 7 centring the rally. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas. BNP, however, arranged the rally in absence of Fakhrul and Abbas and placed a 10-point demand, including the resignation of the current government and holding the next polls under a non-party polls-time government.