Former Pm's Son Arrested in Bangladesh

The army in Bangladesh today moved to consolidate its grip on power with the arrest of Tarique Rahman, son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, as part of a crackdown on corruption.

Mr Rahman's arrest was a dramatic one. Army units and top anti-corruption officials pulled up outside his luxury house at midnight and led the former dauphin of Bangladeshi politics away hours later.

Mr Rahman was widely seen as a successor to his mother, who was considered the most powerful politician in the country until a state of emergency was declared last month. Mrs Zia joined politics after her husband, Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-president, was killed in a military coup in 1981.

It was also reported that one of Mr Rahman's top aides was also taken into custody. Khandaker Mosarraf Hossain, a former health minister, was picked up from his home.

Other political leaders detained by the security forces in the anti- corruption probe were the mayor of the southeastern port city of Chittagong, two former politicians and the leader of a small Islamic party.

The high-profile swoop confirms what many experts have been saying for weeks: the army has covertly assumed power and its first job will be to clean up Bangladeshi politics. The poor, predominately Muslim nation of 146 million people is ranked as the third most corrupt in the world.

There are few complaints from the public about this silent takeover. The widely held view in the country is that both main parties have been looting the state. The Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus plans a new party, based on corruption-free politics, to tap into this vein of discontent.

One recent media report noted that sales of luxury cars and flats have dried up since a caretaker government, hand-picked by Mrs Zia, was ousted and the army installed technocrats in a new administration.

Mrs Zia's main political foe is Sheikh Hasina, whose late husband is the founder of modern-day Bangladesh. Neither leader has spoken to the other in more than a decade. The animosity between Mrs Hasina's Bangladesh Nationalist party and Mrs Zia's Awami League is such that dozens died in political riots last year.

Over the past few weeks, soldiers and police have arrested more than 60 politicians, including 13 former ministers. Most of the detainees belong to the country's two major political parties.

After the arrest of Mr Rahman last night, it was announced that the country's armed forces would re-constitute Bangladesh's National Security Council, giving the military a pivotal role in running the country. The last such mechanism was abandoned when democracy was revived in 1991.