Zia gets bail in inciting anti-government protest case

Bangladesh’s beleaguered former prime minister Khaleda Zia on Tuesday surrendered before a court in Dhaka which granted her bail for allegedly instigating a deadly petrol bomb attack on a bus during an anti-government protest last year.

“She has secured bail against the arrest warrant surrendering before the court,” an official of the metropolitan sessions judge’s court told reporters.

Hundreds of Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s supporters and leaders surrounded the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court complex in old Dhaka while police in riot gears kept a sharp vigil as Zia appeared in the court, electronic media footages showed.

The development came six days after the court issued an arrest warrant against the 70-year-old Zia and 37 others in connection with instigating a deadly petrol bomb attack on a bus during an anti-government protest last year.

Zia was spearheading a violent nationwide campaign to topple Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League government.

Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah last week issued the arrest warrant, asking police to execute the order and submit the compliance report by April 27.

Mollah, after accepting the charges against 38 people, including the 28, ordered Zia’s arrest in connection with the arson attack in Jatrabari area here in January last year when her party spearheaded a violent nationwide campaign to topple Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government.

“Khaleda will surrender before the court of metropolitan sessions judge on April 5,” Sanaullah Mia, one of her lawyers, had told reporters on Sunday.

Zia was charged by police with masterminding the arson attack on the bus that left one person dead and 30 others injured; nine critically.

The incident was one of many bomb attacks that Bangladesh witnessed in the three months since early January last year when the BNP-led 20-party alliance started an indefinite blockade.

The arrest order was another blow to the embattled two-time former premier, who has described previous cases, including corruption-related, against her as politically motivated and aimed at keeping her out of the country’s politics.