Breaking: Khaleda Zia About to be Arrested

If the video below doesn't work, here's the BBC report from its youtube channel courtesy of an anonymous commenter.

And more BBC footage here.

BBC video report via Mash's blog.

And courtesy of Sushanta bhai, we have footage! Enjoy!



Update 14: Well, it's settled. She has been moved to special jail aka the Speaker's residence at the Shongshod Bhobon complex. The poetic ironies are too good to let slip by without mention.

Two leaders who refused to recognise each other's right to rule inside Parliament are now trapped there against their will. Two leaders who refused to speak to each other outside Parliament are now neighbours inside Louis Kahn's splendid dreams. Irony, irony, irony... if a writer of fiction had come up with this, we would have said it was too much, too neat. Reality as always is so much stranger.

Update 13: Mannan Bhuiyan expelled by Mrs. Zia on her way out of the CMM, according to bdnews24. Dramatic to say the least. But I sense a general malaise setting into the Bangladeshi population, a sense of the dramatic becoming commonplace. As I've said, that red DS banner has been on display one too many times in 2007.

Mrs. Zia has left the leadership of BNP to Khandaker Delowar Hossain, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy and Hannan Shah. Between the three of them, how many partymen can they stop from defecting with Mr. Bhuiyan? And how many of them will leave out of conviction and how many will simply abandon a sinking ship?

Finally, a personal note: Mrs. Zia, I know this is a bad time, but let me be clear about one thing. Please, PLEASE, don't mention "family" and "party" in the same sentence. That is what got us here in the first place!

Update 12: BDnews24 ticker says that Mrs. Zia has been ordered to jail without chances of bail, Coco remanded for 7 days. So it seems that this is more part of the original "minus-2" scenario and not some new plan in response to the riots (see comments 1 and 2). I suspect that the arrest was brought forward because of the troubles though.

On the BNP front, Mannan Bhuiyan has been expelled from the party by Mrs. Zia according to the DS, and his replacement is Khandaker Delowar Hossain, who is Acting GS. I don't know what this means in terms of intra-party politics so would appreciate it if my readers illuminated it for me.

Update 11: And it's always nice to know that the pro-Awami League ...uhhh "pro-71" bloggers on "Voice of Bangladeshi Bloggers" are somewhat ambivalent about this arrest. "Deshi Blogger" writes:

"Finally, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the mother of all corruption, has been arrested by the army backed care taker government. They're now trying to balance their action by arresting Khaleda Zia."

Ahhh yes, "finally"! As long as this CTG is not harming AL interests, it's called "balancing" and can be greeted with the relieved - nay, exultant - "finally" and justified with "the mother of all corruption" tag.

Just reminded me that despite all the bluster emanating from the AL side of the blogosphere, they were the ones who were ready to ratify whatever actions the CTG took.

What changed fellas?

Update 10 : Part of the chaos around the CMM has to be the lawyers trying to get in. At least according to bdnews24:

Lawyers defending Khaleda and her son in court are Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Sanaullah Miah, Masud Ahmed Talukder, Lutfe Alam and Khorshed Alam. Prosecution officer Abdur Rashid will represent the ACC in court. Security officials battled chaos in front of the CMM's Court. Another group of lawyers, led by Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokan, tried to push their way into court, but RAB officers stopped them, sparking an angry exchange of words.

And just to show that BD news media know what the most important aspects of any event are, the report also includes these details:

Khaleda and Coco were given chairs to sit on in the courtroom. Khaleda arrived in court in sari and sunglasses and Coco was in jeans and T-shirt.

Is this news or Entertainment Tonight? And oh, was the T-shirt and jeans designed by Coco Chanel (sorry, really couldn't resist that awful pun)?

Update 9: People with access to Bangla TV channels: Any news on the "chaos"? What's going on?

A friend of a friend (yes, THAT old source) watching TV back home says that the "chaos" was more reporters than anything else. HOWEVER, the TV cameras went cold a while back, so we don't know the latest.

Update 8: Bdnews24 reports of "chaos hitting the front of CMM" as KZ arrives. What form this "chaos" took we don't know. Hopefully not rioting and property destruction. That explains the security measures mentioned in update 7. Bdnews says:

Security officials are battling chaos in front of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for Dhaka as Khaleda Zia has arrived after arrest early Monday. The former prime minister and Coco were arrested shortly after 7:30am. The embattled former prime minister and her son were led away from their cantonment home in a security bubble.

Update 7: DS ticker reporting that "unprecedented security measures have been taken around CMM". Unprecedented? Really? More than during Mrs. Hasina's arrest? Perhaps just the same?

Update 6: It's official according to bdnews24:

The police arrested Khaleda Zia and her son Arafat Rahman Coco at their cantonment home early Monday, security officials said. She was arrested shortly after 7:30am along with Coco. The embattled former prime minister and her son were led away at 7:39am, in a security bubble. The move came hours after the Anticorruption Commission filed a corruption case against 13 people, including the former prime minister and the younger son. Police and RAB officers and intelligence agents swarmed the road to the Shaheed Mainul Road residence of the BNP chief. Khaleda will be taken to the court of metropolitan magistrate Md Salehuddin. Security officers put in place a huge security arrangement on the road to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for Dhaka.

A commenter on my blog believes that she will be arrested but released on bail. I await further developments with much interest. Anyone with information, feel free to leave comments.

Update 5: Daily Star's all-too-frequent-in-2007 red banner says that she is expected to be produced in court soon.

Update 4: Shocholayoton blogger Onrinno says that the law enforcers are still inside her house. She's expected to be arrested and produced before a lower court at any moment.

Update 3: Much like Mrs. Hasina's last minute interview with bdnews24, Mrs. Zia has also granted them an interview:

In an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com, Khaleda Zia said: "I'm not afraid of arrest. People are with me. The case against me is false." The embattled former prime minister spoke to bdnews24.com's Senior Correspondent Sumon Mahmud as police arrived early Monday at her cantonment home apparently for arrest, hours after the Anticorruption Commission filed a corruption case against her and her son Arafat Rahman Coco. "Against the BNP, there was a conspiracy in the past. Still there is. I hope BNP leaders and workers stay united," she told bdnews24.com. "I worked for people all my life. I'm passing the burden of justice to people as well. Please pray for me," Khaleda told bdnews24.com by phone from home.

I don't mind these interviews. I just don't like politicians from every party crying out "the cases against me are false" and "conspiracy" every time they suffer political intimidation. If there were really these many "conspiracies" in Bangladesh, our GDP would have shot up a bit more!

In any case, how about some calls for "restraint" and "settling this in a court of law" instead of "passing the burden of justice to people"?

Update 2: Shamokal reporting that she's already arrested. When did this paper's internet edition come out?

Update: bdnews24 has this to say minutes after I posted this:

Scores of security officers in plainclothes drove into Dhaka cantonment early Monday amid wide speculation about the imminent arrest of Khaleda Zia. Police officers in plainclothes arrived at Khaleda's house on Shahid Mainul Road in the cantonment, house staffer Ruhul Amin told bdnews24.com at 5:40am Monday. Amin said the police asked Khaleda and her son Arafat Rahman Coco to "get ready". At least 10 cars in the first batch drove into the cantonment shortly after 5am, followed by another convoy of up to 25 cars, witnesses reported from the scene.

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Dhaka is once again the city of rumours. BDnews24.com reports that security was tightened around her residence, and the breaking news ticker says that "Police and RAB have driven into the cantonment".

Louis Kahn, here we go again...

Stay tuned folks.