DHAKA, Aug 22: A former director general of the Islamic Foundation of Bangladesh, Maulana Fariduddin Masud, was detained at the Zia International Airport on Monday for his alleged involvement in the Aug 17 serial bombings which left two people dead and more than 150 injured.

The immigration police detained him in the departure lounge when he was about to board an Emirates Airlines flight for London.

Confirming the incident, a police official said that Maulana Farid was detained by the immigration officials working at the airport upon information from an intelligence agency. “The government has imposed a ban on his leaving the country and the intelligence agency people are quizzing him at the airport.”

Farid is one of the 17 people that police suspect of involvement in the countrywide serial bombings, and the authorities concerned have been asked to make sure they don’t leave the country at the moment, police sources said. “In fact, such a ban on leaving the country has been imposed on a total of 100 persons, including the top 17, suspected of having links with the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahidin,” the source added.

The local police also sought assistance from Interpol about the grilling of a number of top militant leaders. A list of 17 leaders, including the chief of Jamaatul Mujahidin, has been sent to the Interpol for their arrest, a reliable source said.

Meanwhile, the inspector general of police, Mohammad Abdul Quyyum, told newsmen at the Home Ministry that police had arrested a number of people on Monday upon the statements of arrested persons now being quizzed by police and members of the joint interrogation cell.

“We’re on the right track of investigation into the August 17 blasts,” the police chief said in reply to a query whether the police were making indiscriminate arrests across the country.

The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, who held a series of meetings with the chiefs of different law enforcement agencies, told newsmen that investigators had achieved a lot regarding the blasts.

Meanwhile, a total of 42 people, arrested as suspects of the blasts, were being quizzed by members of the joint interrogation cell.