MA Quayum, the central microcredit affairs secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has been detained by the Malaysian police for his unlawful stay in the country.
Family members and human rights activists confirmed his detention on Saturday evening, saying that the police nabbed him under the immigration act and took him to the Ampang police station there.
According to relatives, MA Qayum has been in Malaysia since 2015 under the second home programme, and also as a refugee listed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
MA Qayum is an accused in the murder case of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella in Bangladesh.
Shamim Ara Begum, his wife, told Prothom Alo over the phone that a police team asked him to go to the police station when he was parking his car after returning home from Friday prayers.
“The police informed him that he was being arrested under the immigration law due to the cancellation of his passport and illegal stay in the country. Later, they took him to the police station,” she said.
She went to the police station immediately and provided his passport and necessary medications. The authorities would allow her and a lawyer to talk to the detained BNP leader on Monday.
MA Qayum is an accused in the murder case of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella in Bangladesh.
Kuala Lumpur-based human rights group SUARAM contacted the law enforcement agencies regarding his detention. They also reported the issue to the office of the UN human rights commissioner and sought assistance in releasing MA Qayum.