Bangladesh security forces have detained Tareque Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, and several other politicians as part of a nationwide sweep against corruption, police said. Tareque is the joint secretary-general of KhaledaÂ’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which ended its five-year rule in October and handed power to an interim government in charge of holding the next election.
Security forces also detained several other key political figures, including Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, former health minister in KhaledaÂ’s government, Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher, a former deputy from BNP ally Jamaat-e-Islami and the mayor of the port city of Chittagong, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury. The arrests are been part of a countrywide crackdown launched by the army-backed interim government against corrupt politicians and dishonest businessmen, officials said.