Hours after their arrest, BNP Vice-Chairman Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed and two other party leaders were freed on bail on Thursday.

Earlier, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Sayeed granted bail to Hafiz, BNP joint secretary general Khairul Kabir Khokon and Jatiyatabadi Hawkers’ Dal general secretary Mokbul Hossain as they were produced before his court seeking remand in a case filed with Shahbagh Police Station over Tuesday’s violence in front of the High Court.

The court also rejected petitions of Detective Branch (DB) inspector Delwar Hossain seeking a 10-day remand for interrogating the trio.

Following the court order, the BNP leaders were freed from the custody of Metropolitan Magistrate court around 6pn.

Talking to reporters, Hafiz said police arrested him from the High Court area as he went there to seek anticipatory bail in the case.

He, however, said the lower court ensured justice by granting him bail.

Earlier in the day, the BNP leaders were arrested from the High Court area.

According to the case statement, two policemen were injured in a clash between a group of BNP leaders and activists and police while they were staging demonstrations in front of the High Court on Tuesday seeking party chief Khaleda Zia’s release.

A number of vehicles were vandalised during the clash.

Later at night, Matiur Rahman, sub-inspector of Shahbagh Police Station, filed the case on charge of vandalism and assault on police against 28 identified and more than 500 unidentified people in connection with the clash.

Meanwhile, the High Court granted eight-week anticipatory bail to BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and three others in the same case.

The three other BNP leaders are BNP Standing Committee Members Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, and party’s law secretary Kayser Kamal.

The HC bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan passed the order.