Bail eludes most mass arrest victims

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Hopes of the relatives of mass arrest victims to get them released were shattered as court granted bail only to a small number of them yesterday.

The mass arrests were made prior to Monday’s grand rally of the opposition, which is being followed by its blockade programme today and hartal tomorrow.

Sources said the Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court, Dhaka, yesterday granted bail to lesser number of people compared to that on other days.

Besides, relatives alleged that many of the mass arrest victims were not released from jail although they were granted bail because they were shown arrested in other cases.

“We are lucky to get bail order today (yesterday) for my nephew,” said Masudur Rahman. But he had to spend Tk 10,000 to get the bail order, he alleged.

Masud said Ramna police arrested his nephew Nazmul Hossain on Saturday from Segunbagicha and implicated him in a case for police assault at Bangla Motor.

Nazmul, employee of a garment factory at Paltan, was in office at the time of the incident mentioned in the FIR (first information report) by police. He said he showed police a copy of the office records showing his nephew’s presence but police ignored it.

A couple of days before the grand rally of the Awami League-led 14-party opposition combine, police arrested around 1,400 people in the capital alone.

This time most of them were implicated in cases filed earlier, increasing the sufferings of the victims and their relatives.

TRANSFER OF PRISONER TO OTHER JAILS CAUSES SUFFERINGS
Kasar Banu, 55, was waiting in front of the Dhaka Central Jail gate yesterday with two cucumbers, some carrots and some green chillies in a polybag, which the poor woman brought for her son who is in the prison for seven months.

She waited at the jail gate from morning to meet her son Habibur Rahman. “Since morning I sent visiting slip twice but there is no trace of my son as yet,” she regretted.

Like Kasar Banu, a number of others also did not get any satisfactory answer from the jail guards on the whereabouts of their relatives.

The jail guards said possibly their relatives are among several hundred prisoners transferred to Kashimpur jail ahead of Monday’s grand rally.

Sources said they were shifted from the crammed the central jail to ensure accommodation for the mass arrest victims.

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