Bangladesh arrests Islamic party chief

Bangladesh police have arrested the chief of the country's biggest Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, over allegations of kickbacks in a port deal, police said on Monday.

The arrest was the latest in a crackdown on corruption that the army-backed interim administration is aiming to complete before an election scheduled for December.

Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, who was industry minister in the government of Begum Khaleda Zia, was picked up from his home in the capital Dhaka on Sunday night and taken to a police station under tight security.

A Dhaka court rejected his bail petition on Monday and ordered him sent to jail until the investigation into the allegations was completed, a police officer said.

Earlier, dozens of his supporters, who had gathered at the house on reports he was going to be arrested, tried to block police from entering the premises. "Our leader is innocent," they shouted as he was led away in a police jeep.

Nizami, 65, will be questioned for an illegal contract given to a local company for handling of cargo operations at the main Chittagong port, a police officer said.

"We have arrested Moulana Nizami around midnight Sunday and taken him to the city's Cantonment police station," he said, declining to give any more details.

The Jamaat was part of Khaleda's coalition government during its term from 2001 to 2006.

Nizami's party has in the past faced allegations of war crimes stemming from the 1971 independence war when thousands of Bengali nationalists were killed, raped or tortured in a crackdown by the Pakistan army in what was then East Pakistan. The party has denied any involvement.

Nizami's arrest came hours after two former members of the Khaleda government, who were also wanted in the cargo contract case, gave themselves up in a court and were sent to jail.

Khaleda and her rival former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, head of Awami League, have themselves been under detention for a year, facing trial on multiple charges of corruption and abuse of power.

They both deny any wrongdoing, and say the charges were designed to keep them from contesting the December election.