Officials have detained former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport ending his attempts to flee the country.

On Tuesday afternoon, the joint-general secretary of the ousted Awami League was arrested, airport sources claimed.

Hasan remained missing since the resignation of Sheikh Hasina as the country's premier on Monday.

He is the fourth high-profile official of Awami League (AL), which waged a bloody and gruesome campaign to illegally extend its hold on to power, to be detained at the Dhaka international airport on Tuesday. The bloodshed reached its peak over the last couple of weeks after students took to streets demanding almost all of government job recruitment to be merit-based. There were allegations that the ruling Awami League used the disproportionate quota system in public service jobs for adding its favoured people to the administrative branch and solidifying its unlawful grip on power.

Student-led protests ultimately defeated Awami League's iron hand on 5 August, in turn sparking a series of fast-paced revenge attacks on Awami League men.

Earlier, former ICT state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, and two key leaders of BCL, Awami League’s student wing, were stopped from travelling abroad through the airport.

BDST: 2130 HRS, AUGUST 06, 2024
MSK