Arrest warrant issued against Zia's son in sedition case

A Bangladesh court today issued an arrest warrant against the 'fugitive' eldest son of opposition leader and former premier Khaleda Zia in a sedition case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari issued the order against Tarique Rahman, who is senior vice president of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and a former journalist of a private channel after accepting the chargesheet against four persons.
BNP chairperson Zia's eldest son, who is an accused and wanted in several other cases, has been living in the UK for the past eight years.
The case was initiated in January last year.
ETV's former chief reporter Mahathir Faruki Khan is the second person who is now on the wanted list, court police prosecution wing Deputy Commissioner (DC) Md Anisur Rahman told bdnews24.Com.

Following the home ministry's clearance, police set the sedition case rolling three days after the TV channel broadcast live Tarique's speech delivered at an event in London.

The case had initially accused only Tarique and former ETV chairman Abdus Salam, but later Khan and the channel's senior reporter Kanak Sarwar were named in the chargesheet.
Only Salam is currently in jail. Sarwar is out on bail while Khan is still on the run, Rahman said.
Police had accused Tarique and Salam of "threatening Bangladesh's sovereignty and trying to create hatred against a legally constituted government by broadcasting and dishing out false and fabricated information".

Tarique in his speech in January last year had made controversial remarks regarding Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War.
That same month, the High Court slapped a ban on the publishing and broadcasting of his statements in any form of media in the country.
The BNP leader was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined 200 million taka by the High Court on July 21 this year in a money laundering case.
Earlier, arrest warrants were also issued for him in four cases, including one related to the August 21 grenade attack.