The Standing Committee member was picked up at around 10:45pm on Wednesday, his son Barrister Maruf Hossain told bdnews24.com.

Ramna Zone’s Assistant Commissioner Shibli Noman said Hossain had been shown arrested in an ACC money laundering case.

The national anti-graft agency on Feb 6 filed a money laundering case against Hossain, who was the health minister in the BNP-led 2001-06 government.

He is alleged to have laundered around Tk 95 million during that stint as minister.

Hossain has been taken to Ramna Police Station.

The BNP policymaker had been granted anticipatory bail by the High Court but that was scrapped by the Appellate Division on Feb 24.

‘Arrests can’t suppress agitation’

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a statement condemned the arrest.

Khaleda alleged Hossain had been detained as a part of a “continuous conspiracy by the government to destroy the opposition”.

She warned that the government’s crackdown on the BNP and its allies was leading to an ‘inauspicious outcome’.

The former Prime Minister warned the government will not be able to ‘suppress’ the Opposition’s agitations by detaining its leaders in ‘false cases’.

“The [ruling] Awami League thinks the [opposition’s] agitation will hit a dead end if leaders of the [BNP-led] opposition are put behind bars.

“This misconception and imaginary dream would lead to their (the Awami League’s) fall,” Khaleda said in the statement signed by BNP’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.