DHAKA, Feb 4: The Bangladesh army-led forces detained at least 14 leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League for their alleged links with crime and corruption.

The detained people include former ministers of the past government of the BNP-led alliance and the preceding AL government. There was no official confirmation of the arrests made during pre-dawn raids on Sunday. Where they were taken to could not be known.

Two advisers to the interim government, Mainul Hosein and M.A. Matin, did not provide any details, when talking to journalists at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Sunday. They could not say on what charges the BNP and Awami League leaders had been detained.

‘We will be able to specify the charges once the first information report is filed against them,’ said Mainul, law and information adviser to the interim government. ‘Certain rules under the Emergency Powers Act empower lawmen to make such arrests.’Those arrested for alleged corruption would be tried under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, he said.

However, it was a major raid against politicians by the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.

The armed forces detained Nazmul Huda, a former communications minister, Salauddin Qader Chowdhury, parliamentary affairs adviser to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Amanullah Aman, a former state minister for labour and manpower, Mir Nasir Uddin Ahmed, a former state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, a former state minister for power, Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, a former deputy minister for land, and lawmakers Naser Rahman, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi and Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan of the BNP.

Naser is also the eldest son of former finance minister and senior BNP leader Saifur Rahman.

Among the leaders of the Awami League and its front organisations detained are Mohammad Nasim, a former home minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, a former state minister for planning, Salman F Rahman, privatisation affairs adviser to AL president Sheikh Hasina, and Pankaj Devnath, general secretary of the Sechhasebak League, volunteers’ front of the Awami League.

Mostafa Kamal, a businessman who was nominated by the Awami League for the 2001 general elections and also for the now-cancelled January 22 elections, was also detained.

According to sources in the intelligence agencies, several teams comprising members of the army, the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, the Rapid Action Battalion and police set out for different direction immediately after midnight to arrest politicians allegedly having links with corruption as per a fresh list prepared after the interim government was sworn in.

The teams raided the houses of a number of mid-level leaders of both the Awami League and the BNP but failed to arrest them.