AL presidium member Kazi Zafar Ullah arrested

The law enforcement authorities have arrested Awami League presidium member Kazi Zafar Ullah from Dhaka’s Gulshan area.

The arrest occurred late on Wednesday night, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Media and Mass Communications) Talebur Rahman.

“He has been arrested and there is a case against him at Paltan Police Station,” he said.

Zafarullah fell sick after the arrest and was then taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

“Zafarullah is now healthy, but he is still at the hospital,” Talebur said.

On Aug 5, Sheikh Hasina resigned her premiership and fled to India in the face of a student-led mass movement.

Since then, several ministers, MPs, and senior leaders of the Awami League have been arrested.

Zafarullah joined Awami League politics soon after Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

Kazi Zafar Ullah was elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2001 national election from the then Faridpur-5 constituency on the Awami League ticket.

Later, in 2014 and 2018, he contested from the Faridpur-4 constituency under the boat symbol but lost to independent candidate Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury Nixon. Most recently, he was also defeated by Nixon in the 2024 election.

At the 20th National Conference of the Awami League in 2016, he was elected to the party’s Presidium, its highest policymaking body.

Zafarullah is also a member of the local government and parliamentary nomination board of the party.