Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was allegedly detained by police in the small hours of Friday.
Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas, a member of BNP standing committee, were arrested at around 3 am, said a party leader.
BNP’s press wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan told the Prothom Alo that members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police detained the two top leaders of the de facto opposition party from their residences in the capital.
Quoting Fakhrul’s wife Rahat Ara, Sayrul said DB police went to Fakhrul’s residence in Uttara, Dhaka, at around 3 am and told them they are detaining Fakhrul at the order of high-level authority of the government.
About the same time DB police also picked Mirza Abbas up from his Shahjahanpur residence in the capital city.
The police statement could not be taken at the dead of night.