DHAKA Bangladesh shut down a pro-opposition newspaper and arrested its editor on fraud charges, police said Wednesday, after storming the papers offices in a late-night raid.

Mahmudur Rahman, acting editor of the Bengali-language Amar Desh and one of the governments most vocal critics, was arrested after police broke through an improvised barricade set up by the papers journalists.

“He has been arrested on charges of fraud and defamation,” local police chief Mahbubur Rahman told AFP.

The arrest came hours after the authorities cancelled the papers publication rights, allegedly because the publisher, Hashmat Ali, had filed a case with the police.

“The publisher has said he was no longer responsible for Amar Desh and it was being printed illegally. He has filed a fraud case with police,” government official Muhibul Haque told AFP.

But local media reports quoted the publishers family as saying Ali has been picked up by intelligence officials and detained.

Rahman, a stalwart of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), claimed Ali, who also supported the BNP, had been forced to sign the fraud papers prepared by the governments intelligence services.

“Police stormed the office and beat several journalists before picking up Rahman on Wednesday morning,” said Zahed Chowdhury, city editor of Amar Desh.

Rahman has been a vocal critic of the current Awami League government since it swept to power in December 2008 elections.