Former Bangladesh Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi has been arrested, according to media reports on Sunday, as police stepped up crackdown against officials and ministers of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government.
The 76-year-old leader was detained from a house in the Piergoli area of the capital Dhaka at around 3 am on Saturday, the Daily Star newspaper quoted Paltan police station chief Mollah Mohammad Khaled Hossain as saying.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police detained him and brought him to the Detective Branch (DB) office.
Hussain said Ghazi was kept at the DB office as the police station was badly damaged after the recent violence. He said a group of people surrounded the house after learning about his presence there.
However, the police officer did not give any details about the case for which he was arrested.
Earlier, a murder case was registered against 105 people, including Hasina and Gazi, at the Rupganj police station in Narayanganj.
Gazi was elected MP from Rupganj-1 constituency in Narayanganj in the 12th parliamentary elections held in January with the Awami League’s boat election symbol.
On Saturday, a Dhaka court remanded Hasina’s private industry affairs adviser Salman F Rahman, former law minister Anisul Haque, former social welfare minister Dipu Moni and two others for varying periods for questioning in four murder cases.
Apart from these three, former Chief Whip ASM Feroz and former Army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan have also been remanded in the murder cases.
Cases have been registered against several officials or ministers of the ousted Hasina-led government after she resigned and fled to India on August 5 following massive protests against the quota reform system in Bangladesh.
Most of the Awami League leaders have gone into hiding since Hasina’s resignation.
Several members of the Awami League party led by Hasina have been in jail since the new interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge on August 8 after the collapse of the previous government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
