Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists are under fresh pressure of arrests and crackdown after the police filed cases against over 600 people in 14 cases filed so far on charges of arson attacks on buses, vandalism and exploding crackers in the city.

Party leaders and activists that are on the run alleged that police and ruling party activists were looking for them at their houses.

They said that the cases filed over Thursday’s arson attacks on buses against their activists and leaders were fabricated and aimed to repress the opposition party.

In the Naya Bazar arson attack case statement, Bangshal police claimed that a bus of Dishari Paribahan was set on fire from a procession of BNP activists. The activists also fled the spot after hurling crackers.

But witnesses and the bus driver said that there was no procession or  political gathering there and no crackers were exploded there during the incident.

Driver Md Foysal told New Age that someone staying inside might have set it on fire.

Approached about the contradiction between the case statement and witness versions, Bangshal police station sub-inspector and plaintiff of the case Dulal Chandra Kunda said that the exact incident would be revealed in the investigation.   

Seventy-year old Hazrat Ali was arrested from his shop at Segunbagicha on Thursday afternoon and was placed on a three day-police remand.

Hazrat, vice-president of ward 20 BNP unit, was made the prime accused of the arson attack on a bus in front of Aziz Super Market under the Shahbagh police station.

Hazrat’s son Al-Amin told New Age that his father was at their shop in Segunbagicha during the attack and they had close circuit camera footage supporting his presence at the shop, but the police still arrested him after naming him the prime accused in a case.

He said that his 70-year-old father even could not walk properly.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for media Walid Hossain said that they arrested 32 activists of the BNP and its associate bodies in 14 cases filed with nine police stations.

The highest three cases were filed with the Paltan police station in which 10 BNP leaders and activists were arrested, he added.

Besides, two cases each were lodged with the Shahbag and Motijheel police stations and one case each was filed with the Bangshal, Vatara and Kalabagan, Sutrapur, Turag, Khilkhet, Uttara Purba police stations.

The charges brought against the accused were for attempted murder by torching buses under the Penal Code, sabotage under the Special Powers Act and the Explosives Substance Act.

A police official said that filing of several more similar cases is underway for similar offences.

Meanwhile, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that law enforcement agencies heard some conversations among BNP leaders relating to the arson attacks on buses, which proved the BNP’s involvement in violent activities.

He told journalists at his official residence that the BNP wanted to make the elections questionable in which they were defeated, adding, “We have identified from video footage and CCTV footage many who were involved in setting fire to buses and handed them over to the law enforcement agencies.

At least 11 buses were set afire at separate places in a series of arson attacks in the capital during about five hours starting from Thursday noon.

None was injured in the fire incidents, according to police and fire service officials.

Police said that the attacks were carried out to hinder Thursday’s Dhaka-18 by-elections, which the BNP rejected on allegations of ousting its agents from the polling centres and widespread rigging.

Several bus employees and witnesses said that they only saw the fire but could not say as to who and why the buses were torched.

Meanwhile, BNP leader and activists are alleging that they were facing a fresh crackdown from the police supported by ruling Awami League men amid the series of cases where over 600 people were named with many others unnamed.

BNP Dhaka South ward 35 unit secretary Rolex Parvez was among the 56 named accused in a case filed over setting fire on a bus at Naya Bazar under the Bangshal police station.

Parvez said that he had appeared before a metropolitan magistrate court in another case filed against him during the arson attack, yet he was named an accused in the case.

‘It is a false case and I have been facing 72 such false cases,’ said Parvez, who is in hiding to avoid arrest.

Parvez said that like him many leaders and activists of the BNP and associate organisations were out of their home as the police started a crackdown on them immediately after the cases were lodged.

These are pre-determined and fabricated cases against BNP leaders and activists to put them under fresh pressure, he said.

Parvez alleged that the police, along with Awami League and Juba League members, were raiding