Sacked Maj Gen Ziaul Ahsan was detained at the Dhaka airport in the early hours of yesterday while trying to flee the country.

Ziaul, who was dismissed from the army on Tuesday, was on board an Emirates flight that was taxiing the runway for take-off.

The plane was asked to return to boarding bridge and Ziaul was taken off the aircraft and transported to the Dhaka Cantonment, The Daily Star has learnt from officials at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Ziaul, who joined the Bangladesh Army as a commissioned officer in 1991, is alleged to have been involved in enforced disappearances and assassinations during his time in the Rapid Action Battalion.

In 2009, he was made the vice-captain of Rab-2 in 2009 when he was a major. He was elevated to the rank of lieutenant colonel the same year and took charge as director of Rab's intelligence wing on August 27, 2010.

He was made Rab's additional director general (operations) on December 7, 2013 after being promoted to colonel.

Allegations of enforced disappearances, killing people in contract and crossfire started piling up against Rab when Ziaul served as its intelligence chief and additional DG.

Despite various allegations, the Awami League government promoted Ziaul to the rank of Brigadier General and made him director (internal affairs) of National Security Intelligence.

In 2017, he was later made the director of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), an intelligence agency under the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.

The agency is responsible for monitoring, collecting and recording information and communication data as well as for the interception of electronic communication such as phone calls, emails and social media accounts.

On July 21, 2022, a new post of director general of NTMC was created when Ziaul was promoted to the rank of major general; he became the first DG of NTMC.

During the peak of the student protest on June 17, the NTMC closed down mobile internet. A day later, it instructed International Internet Gateway companies to stop supplying bandwidth to broadband service providers, leading to a complete internet blackout in the country.

Although the BTRC is tasked with regulating the internet in Bangladesh, NTMC overstepped its authority to suppress the protesters, according to sources.

The NTMC, which began its full-fledged operation on January 1, 2017, has been monitoring all telecommunication service providers around the clock.

Since 2019, it could also block and filter content of the social media and websites critical of the government.

Earlier, on June 1, 2022, the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement approved the proposal for the 'Part Procurement of Integrated Lawful Interception System - Geo Location System and Related Services' at a cost of Tk 172 crore.

The geo-location system can perform intelligent analysis by examining data from various sources.

The platform covers the geographical boundaries of the entire country, enabling the NTMC to identify the exact location of any person by analysing past location data.