Staff Reporter:

A Dhaka court has acquitted eight individuals, including BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, in a case involving the burning and vandalism of a Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) garbage truck.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ziadur Rahman passed the order on Wednesday.

Among the other acquitted individuals are BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Dhaka City South Secretary Muhammad Shafiqul Islam Masud, former Jubo Dal president Saiful Alam Nirab, BNP Information and Research Secretary Azizul Bari Helal, and BNP members Moazzem Hossain Babu, Kazi Rezaul Haque Babu, and Khandaker Enamul Haque Enam.

Mirza Fakhrul’s lawyer, Syed Joynul Abedin Mezbah, stated that the case had been pending for a long time due to the absence of witnesses. As a result, the judge acquitted the accused.

According to the case statement, on December 9, 2012, around 200 to 250 BNP and Jamaat activists, led by Fakhrul and Rizvi and armed with sticks, blocked the road in the Paltan model police station area and vandalized a garbage truck of the DSCC, tossing bombs at it.

Md Aynal, the driver of the truck, filed a case in this connection.

On October 23, 2017, the Investigating Officer of the case, DB Police Sub-Inspector Anwar Hossain Khan, pressed charges against the accused.