DHAKA, Feb 5 (IPS) - The detention of over a
dozen high-profile politicians by the
military-backed interim government in Bangladesh,
on Sunday, has raised a storm of protests by
rights groups and the country’s two main
political parties.

Those taken into custody include former ministers
and legislators from the Awami League party of
former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and
from the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
of Begum Khaleda Zia, who stepped down as prime
minister in October on completion of a five-year
term in office.

Among influential ex-legislators picked up in the
pre-dawn swoop was media tycoon Musaddek Ali
Falu, political secretary to Khaleda Zia. Falu
runs the TV channels NTV and RTV and is the owner
of the ’Amar Desh’ (Our Country), a Bengali
language daily.

After more than two months of political turmoil
and street violence by the supporters of the two
parties, President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a
state of emergency on Jan. 11 and, on the
following day, an interim government headed by
Fakhruddin Ahmed took over the administration.

The new dispensation, which replaced a caretaker
government that was to have overseen general
elections slated for Jan. 22, immediately
launched a massive drive across the country
netting corrupt politicians and businessmen and
reclaiming government lands occupied by
influential people.

"We haven’t seen the police or army detain any
top politician or a minister after the fall of
the military dictator H.M. Ershad in 1990,"
Shahnaj Hossain, a teacher, told IPS in Dhaka.

Over the last three weeks, the security forces
comprising the army, the paramilitary Bangladesh
Rifles and the elite Rapid Action Battalion have
joined police in detaining over 5,000 people.

’’Sunday’s raids were the biggest raids in three
weeks when we’ve detained over a dozen of former
ministers and lawmakers," a senior government
official told IPS.

But the detentions have been controversial since
the politicians were picked up from their homes
without any warrant of arrest. An eminent lawyer
Kamal Hossain said politicians should not be made
the target for ’’indiscriminate arrests’’.

’’There is no doubt that cleansing in politics is
necessary and politicians, perceived to be
corrupt, need to be taken care of," Nurul Kabir,
editor of the ’New Age’, a leading English
language daily published from Dhaka, told IPS.

’’What is missing in the detentions is a
transparent process and specific charges
formulated within the framework of law — if
corrupt politicians eventually go unpunished due
to lack of adequate legal proof, the whole
purpose of streamlining politics and economy
would be defeated,’’ Kabir said.

Others reported detained were Nazmul Huda, a
former communications minister, Salauddin Qader
Chowdhury, parliamentary affairs advisor to
Khaleda Zia, Amanullah Aman, a former state
minister for labour and manpower, Mir Nasir Uddin
Ahmed, a former state minister for civil aviation
and tourism, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, a former state
minister for power, Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, a
former deputy minister for land, and former
lawmakers Naser Rahman, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi and
Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan of the BNP.

Naser is also the eldest son of former finance
minister and senior BNP leader Saifur Rahman.

Among leaders of the Awami League detained were
Mohammad Nasim, a former home minister, Mohiuddin
Khan Alamgir, a former state minister for
planning, Salman F Rahman, a leading businessman
and also advisor to Sheikh Hasina, and Pankaj
Devnath.

"Members of the joint forces stormed into our
house at about 1:00am and asked my husband to go
with them," Laila Akhter Bithi, wife of Nasim,
told the local press. ’’They failed to produce
any warrant for arrest when we asked them why he
was being taken away."

The teams also raided the homes of a number of
middle-rung leaders of both the Awami League and
the BNP but failed to arrest them. Most of them
have been staying away from their homes since the
joint forces began the drive, their families
claimed.

The two political parties, bitter rivals for many
years, demanded that the government produce the
detained political leaders in court. ’’Produce
the political leaders, who were arrested by the
joint forces across the country, in the court,"
the BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan
said in a statement on Sunday. "All concerned
should make sure that nobody is deprived of the
right to get justice."

’’We have no objection if real criminals and
corrupt persons, who have plundered public money,
are arrested. But we call on the joint forces not
to harass innocent leaders of the party only
because of their political identity," acting
general secretary of the Awami League Obaidul
Kader said.

Noted writer and scientist Muhammad Zafar Iqbal
said corrupt leaders of all political parties
should be brought to book and not just of the
Awami League or the BNP.

"Jamaat leaders are also corrupt, but none of
them has been arrested,’’ Iqbal said. The
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh shared
power with the BNP in the last elected government.

A functionary of the Communist Party of
Bangladesh, Ruhin Hossain, told IPS: "The actions
of the security forces must be transparentà we’ve
heard of the arrest of many people, but
government is yet to come up with the details or
whereabouts of those people.“”Many of the arrested people have not been
produced in a court of law and their families
even did not get any chance to meet them," he
said.

The leading rights group Odhikar (Rights)
expressed its concern over the widespread arrests
and in its monthly report claimed that 32 people
died in custody in January. The report also
claimed that six people were killed in custody
until the promulgation of emergency and at least
24 people were killed from Jan. 12 to 31.

Citing Odhikar and other local groups, the New
York-based Human Rights Watch has accused
Bangladeshi security forces of carrying out
unlawful executions, besides the arbitrary
arrests.

Trouble began with the Awami League and its
allies accusing the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami
Bangladesh of appointing partisan or
controversial people to top positions in the
Election Commission and of stuffing the voter
lists with 14 million fake names. To press their
demands for changes in voter rolls and the
reconstitution of the commission they launched a
series of shutdowns and street demonstrations
which quickly turned bloody.

On Sunday night the President appointed former
bureaucrat A.T.M. Shamsul Huda as chief election
commissioner, while the interim government
pledged to reform the election commission before
the rescheduling of general elections. (END/2007)