DHAKA: Bangladesh’s military-backed emergency government has arrested 17,000 people as part of its corruption crackdown, an official said on Wednesday. Those detained include at least 150 leading politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats, a home ministry official told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

Many of the 17,000 had been bailed, the official added, although he was not able to give exact numbers.

The government, headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, was installed on January 12 after a political crisis that led to the cancellation of elections and the imposition of a state of emergency.

After coming to power, the government pledged to clean up Bangladesh politics before holding rescheduled elections by the end of 2008.

The caretaker administration has not released any official figures for the number of people arrested. The unofficial figures, however, are roughly in line with those compiled by human rights groups.

In May, the leading Dhaka-based rights group Odhikar said the total number of people detained in Bangladesh for all crime during the first 130 days of the emergency was 193,329, about 11,000 higher than usual.

Deputy inspector general of prisons Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told the news agency on Wednesday that the prison population peaked at 89,000 last month and currently stood at 84,000, up from 77,000 before the start of the emergency.—AFP