The son of Bangladesh's outgoing prime minister was hospitalised early on Tuesday after being remanded in custody for a month on extortion allegations, officials said. Tareque Rahman, the high-profile son of former premier and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia, was admitted to the hospital wing of Dhaka central jail.
A court late Monday rejected his application for bail, said deputy inspector general of prisons Shamsul Haider Siddiqui. "He complained of pains in the leg and his waist. Therefore we hospitalised him to check his condition," he added.
Another official, the deputy national jail chief, said Rahman, widely regarded as wielding huge influence during his mother's five-year premiership, did not qualify for any special privileges during his detention.