The police in Bangladesh on Friday arrested two top leaders of the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a day before its planned grand rally in the capital to call for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.

BNP’s secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas was picked by the detective branch personnel from their homes in separate pre-dawn raids in the capital city.

“DB (detective branch) men arrested Mr Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir from his Uttara (area) residence at about 3am. There are some cases against (pending against) him,” Uttara police station’s officer in charge Zahirul Islam told newsmen.

Without further elaborations, the official said Alamgir was taken to detective branch custody for subsequent legal procedures as former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s BNP is waging an anti-government campaign.

A BNP spokesman, meanwhile, said the police also arrested the party’s standing committee member Abbas, who is the former mayor of Dhaka, from his Shahjahanpur home in the capital in a pre-dawn raid.

BNP spokesman Zahiruddin Swapan said the plainclothesmen told Alamgir was being taken away on “orders of the high command”.

The BNP is demanding that Prime Minister Hasina step down in favour of fresh elections under a caretaker government instead of ruling Awami League, fearing the polls to be rigged.

The development came two days after one person was killed and scores were wounded as police clashed with angry BNP activists.