AP News, March 8th, 2007
The security forces of Bangladesh's emergency interim government on Thursday arrested six politicians, including the son of the former prime minister, over corruption allegations, local media reported.
Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was detained at his mother's house in Dhaka, the ATN Bangla TV station and Daily Star newspaper reported.
Law Adviser Moinul Hussein had said the government was targeting those accused of graft. The interim administration did not immediately describe the charges against those arrested Thursday.
Rahman, a senior leader of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been widely seen as a potential successor. Zia joined politics herself after her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, was slain in a military coup in 1981.
Zia ended her five-year term in October and handed over power to an interim government to prepare for the parliamentary elections.
But violent street protests erupted when a political alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister and fierce Zia rival, demanded the caretaker administration revamp the election commission, update and correct voting rolls, and remove disputed election officials.
President Iajuddin Ahmed imposed a state of emergency Jan. 11. National elections that were scheduled for Jan. 22 were postponed because of the political unrest, in which 34 people died. No new election date has been set.
In recent weeks, security forces have arrested more than 60 politicians, including 13 former ministers. Most of the detainees belong to the country's two major political parties _ the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League.
Arrested Thursday were Khandaker Mosarraf Hossain, a former health minister and a close aide of Zia; the mayor of the southeastern port city of Chittagong; two former lawmakers; and the leader of an Islamic party, local media and relatives said.
Mayor A.B.M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury was picked up from his house in Chittagong, southeast of the capital, Dhaka. Chowdhury is also a senior leader of the Bangladesh Awami League, headed by Hasina.
Late Wednesday, security forces detained Atiqullah Khan Masud, owner of Dhaka's Janakantha daily newspaper, at his office, said editor Toab Khan. It was not clear why Masud was detained.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based global corruption watchdog, has named Bangladesh one of the world's most corrupt nations.
