Dhaka, May 8 (UNB) - A court here on Tuesday fixed May 17 for hearing on bail petitions filed by BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in connection with two criminal cases filed over violence during the recent hartal.   

Metropolitan Sessions Judge M Jahurul Haque set the date after Rizvi’s lawyer advocate Sanaullah Miah submitted the separate bail petitions in the two cases.  

Earlier, on May 3, Rizvi was denied bail in the two cases – one filed for bomb blast on the compound of Bangladesh Secretariat and the other for torching a bus next to the Prime Minister's Office -- and sent him back to jail.

Two separate courts also rejected remand prayers for the BNP leader.

On April 30, plainclothes police intercepted Ruhul Kabir Rizvi’s car at Kakrail and picked him up on his way back home from the party’s Nayapaltan central office.
 
Tejgaon police filed a case against 44 leaders and activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, including Rizvi, for torching a vehicle near the Prime Minister's Office during hartal on April 29.

On the same day, Shahbagh police lodged another case against 28 opposition leaders in connection with the bomb blasts on the secretariat compound. Rizvi was also among the accused.