The High Court on Tuesday granted bail to detained Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and its standing committee member Mirza Abbas.

The bench of Justice Md Salim and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan granted six months’ bails to the two senior BNP leaders.

They have been detained in the Dhaka Central Jail since December 9, 2022 in a case filed by the police over a clash between the police and party activists in the capital’s Naya Paltan, a day before the party’s mass rally on December 10, 2022.

A Detective Branch team picked up the two BNP leaders from their homes in the early hours of December 9, 2022, stating that they would be quizzed at the DB headquarters in Dhaka.

Fakhrul and Abbas were later shown arrested in a case filed by the police against 471 leaders and activists of the party. A total of 224 leaders of the party were arrested in the case.

The court of Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Asaduzzaman on December 21 upheld the magistrate’s court order that rejected the bail petition of Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas.

The party leaders were accused of vandalism, arson, and obstructing police from discharging their duties.