Dhaka, September 3
The police arrested Bangladesh's immediate past Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her youngest son from their Dhaka Cantonment residence this morning on charges of abusing power while in office.

Immediately after the arrest at about 7.45 am local time, Zia, along with her son Arafat Rahman Koko, was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court for hearing the case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case with Tejgaon police station here yesterday alleging that Khaleda Zia during her tenure as Prime Minister (2001-2006) abused power and favoured her son Arafat Rahman Koko's business farm for recruiting manpower in Chittagong sea port and Inland Depot at Kamlapur in Dhaka.

ACC Assistant Director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury filed the case against Khaleda, her son and 11 others.

Khaleda's elder son Tareque Rahman was detained in March by security forces as part of an anti-corruption drive launched by the country's Army-backed interim government.

Earlier, the government also arrested another former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an extortion case on July 16 and detained her in a makeshift jail in national Parliament building complex.

Nearly 200 former ministers and MPs of both the Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina governments were rounded up on charges of corruption, extortion and abuse of power since the caretaker government of Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed assumed office on January 12 under the state of emergency. Over a dozen ex-ministers and MPs were already sentenced in different terms by special anti-corruption courts. — UNI