DHAKA: A Dhaka court on Thursday issued a travel ban on 14 former Awami League ministers and lawmakers in connection with corruption allegations brought against them by the interim government in Bangladesh, according to a media report.
The development comes after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League resigned and fled to India on August 5 following the mass movement against her government.
The Daily Star newspaper reported that the travel ban has been issued against former social welfare minister Dipu Moni, former health minister Zahid Maleque, former education minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, former food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, former industrial minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun and former industrial deputy minister Kamal Ahmed Majumder.
Former lawmakers Salim Uddin, Mamunur Rashid Kiron, Kujendra Lal Tripura, Kajim Uddin, Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury Liton, Shahjahan Khan, Kamrul Islam and Ziaur Rahman have also been barred from leaving the country.
Judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain of the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court in Dhaka passed the order after Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Deputy Director Abu Hena Ashiqur Rahman, who is also conducting the investigation, submitted an application.
ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir had moved the petition on behalf of the ACC. In the application, Jahangir said the former ministers and lawmakers were trying to flee the country.
Former Bangladesh speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and ex-commerce minister Tipu Munshi have been arrested over the killing of a goldsmith during the recent quota reform protests.
Over 1,000 people have been killed during the protests against the Sheikh Hasina-led government while more than 400 were blinded by police fire, with some of them losing sight in one or both eyes, a top adviser of the interim government said on Thursday.