Detectives arrested three top BNP leaders — Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah — in the capital this evening.
The standing committee members of the main opposition party were detained while coming out of Hotel Sonargaon around 8:00pm.
They went to the hotel to attend a programme organised to mark the founding anniversary of the Bangla daily Prothom Alo.
The detention of the opposition leaders came hours after the BNP-led 18-party combine called a 72-hour countrywide hartal from Sunday to press home their demand for a non-party election-time government.
In less than two weeks, the opposition alliance enforced two 60-hour hartals on the same demand.
The opposition has been staging protests since June 30, 2011 when parliament abolished the caretaker government system from the Bangladesh Constitution.
Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DMP media wing, told The Daily Star that they arrested the BNP leaders but did not give details about the charges brought against them.
Md Sujan and Md Bashir, personal assistants to Moudud and MK Anwar respectively, told The Daily Star that the Detective Branch of police picked up the opposition lawmakers after taking them out of their personal vehicles.
Earlier in the evening, over 50 police personnel have been deployed at the Gulshan office and residence of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia hours after the alliance called the hartal.
Talking to The Daily Star, Shimul Biswas, a special assistant to the opposition leader, said when they wanted to know the reason behind the deployment, a police officer told them that they had gone there following instructions from the higher authorities.
Source: The Daily Star
