Shawkat Mahmud remanded again

A Dhaka court today placed BNP chairperson's adviser Shawkat Mahmud on a four-day fresh remand in four separate arson and vandalism cases.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan passed the order after police produced him before the court seeking his remand for 40 days in the cases.

Hearing on police's prayers seeking his remand for 40 more days in four other cases was not held today.

The law enforcers yesterday showed Shawkat, also president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalist (BFUJ), arrested in eight cases and sought his remand for 80 days.

Shawkat's lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukdar submitted four separate petitions seeking bail along with cancelation of the remand prayers.

The cases were filed for assaulting policemen, preventing them from discharging their duties, damaging and torching vehicles, and throwing crude and petrol bombs at passengers' buses in Dhaka's Paltan and Motijheel areas in January and February this year during the BNP-led 20-party alliance's blockade programme.

The cases were lodged with Paltan and Motijheel police stations.

On Saturday, Shawkat was sent to jail on completion of his three-day remand in a case filed for the death of a private car driver in an arson attack in January.

On August 18, law enforcers detained him from the city's Panthapath area when he went to a convention centre to attend a press briefing of Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, a pro-BNP professionals' platform.

Meanwhile, the same court placed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal President Rajib Ahsan on a three-day remand in connection with three cases filed with Paltan Police Station for arson attack in January and February this year during the alliance enforced three-month blockade.