Detectives detained Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Maqbul Ahmad and eight other leaders of the party in the capital's Uttara last night, said police. 

Jamaat's Secretary General Shafiqur Rahman and Nayeb-e-Ameer Mia Golam Parwar, also a former MP from Khulna-5, were among the detainees.

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police detained them from a house near Labaid hospital around 8:30pm, DB's Deputy Commissioner (North) Sheikh Nazmul Alam, told The Daily Star.

“They were holding a secret meeting there to carry out subversive activities,” he said.

Law enforcers took the Jamaat leaders to the DB office on Minto Road in the capital around 10:15pm.

Details of the other detainees could not be known immediately.

Meanwhile, another Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer, Mujibur Rahman, in a statement last night condemned the detention of the party leaders.   

They were detained while holding an “informal meeting”, it read. 

Jamaat carries out activities in accordance with laws, the statement said, adding detention of its top leaders is part of the government attempt to strip the party of leadership.

The party called a countrywide agitation for today demanding release of the leaders.