Dhaka: BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed and BNP chairperson’s adviser Dr AZM Zahid Hossain were released on bail from prison on Friday.

Rizvi Ahmed was released from Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur in the afternoon while Dr Zahid from the Dhaka Central Jail around 12:45pm.

A good number of leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies received the two BNP leaders at the jail gates with bouquets.

The High Court on Monday granted bail to Rizvi in a case filed over March 11 violence in the capital following police raid on BNP central party office. Earlier, he secured the HC bail on March 17 in another case filed over the incident.

Paltan police on March 12 filed two cases -- one under the Speedy Trial Act and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- against 154 leaders of the opposition alliance on charges of exploding bombs and preventing police from performing their duties.

On March 11, police in a raid on BNP's Nayapaltan central office arrested over 150 of its leaders and workers, including acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Rizvi and Dr Zahid.

Three of the arrested leaders -- Mirza Fakhrul, Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury -- were released the following day.

Although Dr Zahid got HC bail on April 21 in a case, he was rearrested after his release from the jail and shown arrested in another case.

He secured bail in the last case on Thursday.

In the meantime, HC bench on Wednesday asked the authorities concerned not to arrest or harass BNP joint secretaries general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and M Shahjahan and BNP chairperson's adviser Dr AZM Zahid Hossain without following the due legal process.

Ends/OSR/AMA/07/06/13