Tariq Rehman (son of Ziaur and Khaleda) arrested

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Former PM's son arrested in Dhaka

Security forces in Bangladesh have arrested the son of ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia as part of the interim government's crackdown on corruption.

Tarique Rahman and several other politicians were detained during raids in the capital, Dhaka.

The interim government has vowed to clean up corruption before new elections can be held.

Polls set for 22 January were postponed after months of violence and claims that the vote was being rigged.

High profile

More than 40 people died during the violent protests, and a state of emergency was declared on 11 January.

Military-led security forces arrested Tarique Rahman from his home. He is now under their custody

Police spokesman Saiful Alam

The BBC's John Sudworth in Dhaka says Mr Rahman's arrest is a sign that Bangladesh's emergency government, which took power after January's cancelled general election, appears determined to investigate allegations of graft as a precondition to restoring democracy.

Mr Rahman is one of the most high profile of the political heavyweights arrested over the past four weeks, our correspondent says.

Accounts frozen

Son of the most recent Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, he is also senior joint secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and has been widely accused by the country's media of involvement in corruption.

"Military-led security forces arrested Tarique Rahman from his home. He is now under their custody," police officer Saiful Alam told the AFP news agency.

A total of 30 former ministers, political advisors, businessmen and bureaucrats are now in prison. Their luxury cars have been seized and their bank accounts frozen.

The latest raids also included a search of the house of another of Bangladesh's former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina, although no arrests were made.

However, the Awami League Mayor of Chittagong, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, was arrested.

On Tuesday, a court extended for another month the detention of the politicians and businessmen arrested on charges of corruption.

Over the last five years, Bangladesh has been listed by the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, as one of the corrupt countries in the world.

Another article, some obvious errors

Tarique Rahman - flawed heir apparent?

By Alastair Lawson

BBC News

There is a sign - now beginning to fade a little - on the wall outside the headquarters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Dhaka.

It says: Zia Rahman was our leader, Khaleda Zia is our leader and Tarique Rahman will be our leader.

It may be propaganda, but it is not untrue to say that Tarique Rahman has been groomed for leadership of his party since birth.

His father, Zia Rahman, was president of the country before his assassination in 1981, and his mother Khaleda Zia served as prime minister for two periods of office - the second one ending last October.

'Hatchet man'

Tarique, 42, made his first significant step in politics in 2002, when it was announced that he had been promoted to a senior position within the then governing BNP.

The opposition described his rise to joint secretary-general of the party as brazen nepotism, an audacious attempt by Khaleda Zia to groom her son for leadership of the country.

The government should say what the charges of corruption are. Otherwise, there will be questions about his arrest

Asif Nazrul, professor at Dhaka University

His ascent was all the more controversial because of doubts voiced by his critics over whether he had fully completed a degree course in Australia, where reports say he owns a shopping mall.

Mr Rahman rapidly acquired a reputation for being a "hatchet man" who enforced party discipline.

'Scapegoat'

But at the same time he was widely accused of graft in the country's media and was described by one critic as "the epicentre of crime and corruption".

An editorial by the Daily Star editor, Mahfuz Anam, in September summed up the feelings against "the enforcer" that were held by many.

He accused Mr Rahman of "working tirelessly to marginalise the old leadership in the BNP in order to set up his own alternative chain of sycophants, so that after the next election he can serve the country unchallenged".

Analysts say that his arrest shows that the caretaker government was fulfilling its pledge to spare no-one in its anti-graft drive.

Mr Rahman appears to prefer working behind the scenes: he rarely speaks to the press, and is renowned for his reticence in the few media interviews he has given.

How I say "obvious errors": Based on Tariq's age, he was born in late 1964 or early 1965, when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan--when the BNP was not even in existence yet (its rival the Awami League was, largely represented in East Pakistan; a similarly named "National Awami Party" under leadership of NWFP's Wali Khan existed in "West" Pakistan). Also, ALL of Pakistan was under the bootheel of the military (as truncated Pakistan is now). Until 1972, his father COULD have instilled in him an ambition to be a military officer (Ziaur Rehman was a Major in 1970, and became the leader of one of the more prominent Mukti Bahini factions), but not really much further (I have never seen any evidence as to Ziaur's ambition to be Pakistan's president--and he would have faced a serious obstacle from the dominant Punjabi and mohajirs, even if these had existed).

Edited March 8, 2007 by CherryXS