Dhaka: Bangladesh police have arrested the head of the country's largest Islamic party on graft charges in a raid at his residence, hours after two former Cabinet ministers were sent to jail pending their corruption trial.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was arrested late last night from his Maghbazar residence here as several hundred policemen cordoned off his house, officials and witnesses said.
Police took him into custody for his alleged involvement in corruption enforcing a court warrant issued earlier this week, a move that prompted JI activists to stage a protest defying a heavy downpour.
The arrest came hours after two senior former ministers of now detained ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four party government were sent to jail as they surrendered before a court to comply with the arrest warrant on the corruption charges.
Former local government minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Information Minister Shamsul Islam surrendered before the metropolitan court judge who sent them to jail while police said they carried out raids in search of several other accused, including some ex-ministers.
Nizami was the Industries Minister in Zia's Cabinet as his party was a crucial partner in the BNP-led government.
This was the first case in which the JI chief was an accused as the interim government in emergency-ruled Bangladesh spearheaded a massive anti-graft campaign.
Metropolitan Sessions Judge Azizul Haque on Thursday ordered arrest of six former ministers of Zia's Cabinet and six others to be tried under tough Emergency Power Rules (EPR) in a graft case being faced also by Zia and her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko.
