Dhaka, March 24 A prominent former military general who played a key role in 2007 in installing an army-backed interim government replacing one that was believed to be aligned with the BNP, now led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday.
Police said their officers arrested retired Lieutenant General Masud Uddin Chowdhury, one of the key figures instrumental in changing the government in 2007 and installing an interim government that ruled the country for the subsequent two years until the 2008 elections.
"The detective branch arrested him (Chowdhury) last night from his residence in Baridhara (in Dhaka). He has been arrested in connection with five cases that have been filed against him," the branch's chief, Shafiqul Islam, told reporters.
He, however, did not elaborate on the charges against Chowdhury, who later served as Bangladesh's ambassador to Australia and subsequently became a member of parliament from the Jatiya Party.
The Jatiya Party was an electoral ally of the now-disbanded Awami League, led by deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, which won with a two-thirds majority in the December 2008 elections.
The army-backed interim government, following a virtual behind-the-scenes military coup known as 1/11, was believed to be intended to enforce a "minus two formula" to remove two top leaders of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Hasina and her arch-rival, former premier Khaleda Zia.
During the nearly two-year rule of the then-interim government, incumbent premier Rahman was also arrested, allegedly tortured in custody, and accused of several criminal and corruption charges.
Chowdhury was then the coordinator of the National Coordination Committee on Serious Crimes, under which anti-corruption drives were carried out.
Rahman eventually went into exile in the UK, where he spent 17 years and returned home in December last year, five days before his mother Zia’s death after prolonged illness.
The BNP entrusted him with the charge of leading the party after Zia's demise, and came to power in the February 12 election, securing two-thirds of the parliamentary seats under his leadership.
During the previous interim government of Muhammad Yunus, a court last July ordered the confiscation of Chowdhury's movable property.
The arrest of the ex-general came as the then-army chief, General Moyeen U Ahmed, has been exiled in the United States, along with at least two other influential military officials residing abroad.