Police search home of detained former Bangladesh PM Zia
Police searched the house of detained former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia and confiscated documents and mobile phones, an official said today.
Equipped with a search warrant, police and anti-corruption agency officials went through Zia’s home in the capital Dhaka for several hours late yesterday, soon after her arrest, Anti-Corruption Commission official Zahirul Haq said.
“We will analyse the papers,” Haq said.
Police arrested Zia, whose term ended in October, at her Dhaka home early yesterday just hours after a case was filed by an anti-corruption official against Zia and her youngest son, Arafat Rahman, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman told The Associated Press.
Zia was the second former leader to be detained in as many months as part of the military-backed interim government’s move to undermine the country’s political elite widely viewed as corrupt.
Zia insisted she was wrongly arrested for graft, saying she and her son were innocent.
“This is a conspiracy to tarnish the image of my family and my party. We have done nothing wrong. This case against us must be lifted,” Zia told the court yesterday before being jailed pending trial.
Her son was ordered to be held for seven days for questioning.
