Several hundred BNP leaders and activists from different districts crowded the Supreme Court premises today to seek anticipatory bail in cases filed over political violence.
They have been on the run after the cases were filed against them on charges of carrying out subversive activities centering around their party's grand rally in Dhaka on October 28.
Some of them shared their plight to The Daily Star; they described how they still could not stay at their homes for fear of police harassment.
"The rooftops of bathrooms, betel nut groves and the banks of canals and beels (waterbodies) are now the places we live in.
"The law enforcers have been constantly after us since October 28. We don't know what crimes we have committed. Our only crime is we are involved in BNP politics," said Md Bashir, a BNP supporter from Bhola Sadar.
He used to run a small shop in Bhola Sadar to eke a living for his family even though he had a brain stroke a few years back and has been suffering from severe eye problems for several years.
"I could not go to my shop as police have been hunting me since a case was filed against me. I don't know how my family members are getting by," said the 55-year-old.
He was among the few hundred BNP men who came to the apex court from different districts including Bhola, Narayanganj, Mymensingh, Barishal and Pirojpour.
Later, Bashir said that he got bail from the HC in a case filed with Bhola Sadar Police Station.
"I am now on my way home," he said.
Yarul Alam, another BNP leader from Bhola, told this newspaper that nine separate cases have been filed with different police stations on false charges against some 400 BNP members in Bhola since October 28.
Around 100 of the accused came to the HC yesterday for anticipatory bail .
Some of them are senior citizens and have been suffering from different diseases, he said, adding that the accused BNP men cannot stay at their houses as the police have been hot on their heels.
An HC bench led by Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder heard the anticipatory bail petitions yesterday and granted anticipatory bail to a number of BNP activists and leaders for six weeks.
Contacted, Deputy Attorney General Saifuddin Khaled said those who secured bail from the HC are now under the book of the law as they must surrender before the lower courts concerned in six weeks.
He, however, could not say how many BNP men got anticipatory bail from the bench.
Sagir Hossain Leon, a lawyer for 70 accused BNP men, said 24 of his clients from Barishal and Pirojpur have got anticipatory bail from the HC yesterday.
From October 28 to January 21, more than 27,507 BNP leaders and activists were arrested in 1,182 cases across the country, said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on January 21.
The party claimed at least 1,294 of its leaders and activists were given jail sentences in the last couple of months.
Many senior leaders including Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee Members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Mirza Abbas have been in jail after the October 28 rally.-The Daily Star
