Bangladesh: Khaleda Zia to surrender before court tomorrow

Bangladesh’s beleaguered former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will surrender before a court here on Tuesday and seek bail in a case against her for instigating a deadly petrol bomb attack on a bus during an anti-government protest in 2015, her lawyer said on Sunday.

“Khaleda will surrender before the Court of Metropolitan Sessions Judge on April 5,” Sanaullah Mia, one of her lawyers, told reporters here.

“We will submit a petition seeking her bail in the arson case after her appearance in the court,” the lawyer added.

The development came four days after the Metro-politan Sessions Judge’s Court on March 30 issued an arrest warrant again-st the 70-year-old chairperson of the main Opposition outside Parli-ament Bangladesh Natio-nalist Party (BNP) and 27 others from her party after accepting the police chargesheet in the case.

Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah, after accepting the charges against 38 people, including the 28, ordered Ms Zia’s arrest in connection with the arson attack in Jatrabari area here in January 2015 when her party spearheaded a violent nationwide campaign to topple Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League government.

An official of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s court said Judge Mollah passed the order and asked the police to execute the warrant and submit the compliance report by April 27.

BNP has described this case as politically motivated.