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Jamaat-e-Islami leader arrested

DHAKA: The chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh (JIB), Motiur Rahman Nizami, was arrested on Monday. Mr. Nizami is an accused in the Gatco graft case, in which the former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia’s youngest son Arafat Rahman is the prime accused.

Ms. Zia, who is already in prison on corruption charges, is also an accused in the case.

Police arrested Mr. Nizami, who was the Industry Minister in Ms. Zia’s government, five days of the warrant of arrest was issued.

Mr. Nizami said his arrest showed the government did not respect the rule of law. Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed said the government was pushing the election into uncertainty.

This is the first time Mr. Nizami — branded a war criminal as he led the Al-Badar group, which killed secular intellectuals during Bangladesh’s liberation war — was being arrested in his political career.

“Reformist” BNP leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, until recently the Secretary-General of the BNP, and his party’s standing committee member Shamsul Islam were jailed on Sunday in connection to the case.

They surrendered following the court’s arrest orders. The accused will be produced in court on May 22.

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