Bangladesh's influential former army general arrested

DHAKA: (Mar 24) An influential former military general who played a key role in 2007 in installing an army-backed interim government replacing a caretaker one, which was presumed to be inclined to the BNP, now headed by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday.

Police said their men in plain clothes arrested retired Lieutenant General Masud Uddin Chowdhury, one of the key figures instrumental in changing the government in 2007 and installing an interim one that ran the country for the subsequent two years until the 2008 elections.

“The detective branch arrested him (Chowdhury) last night from his Baridhara residence (in Dhaka). He has been arrested in relation to five cases which have been lodged against him,” the branch's chief, Shafiqul Isam, told reporters.