Entries from April 2008 ↓

Dhaka, Apr 28 (PTI) Detained former Bangladesh prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has said she will not quit politics under any “pressure” and asked her partymen not to join the polls planned by the interim government.
“I will not retire from politics under any pressure,” Hasina told her lawyers yesterday on the sidelines of a hearing and informed them that was asked to quit politics.

“Everyone in the present caretaker government that wants to keep me away from politics by filing cases must remember I won’t give up politics on anyone’s instructions,” a defence counsel quoted Hasina as saying as she appeared at a makeshift court for indictment hearing in a corruption case related to fighter jet purchase for the air force during her premiership from 1996 to 2001.

The ex-premier’s comments came amid speculations that the elections planned for this year end could go ahead discarding Hasina and her arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia.

However, according to newspaper reports Hasina earlier said her party should take part in the polls even she was debarred from contesting the polls.

Zia too is currently in jail to face several corruption charges as part of a massive anti-graft campaign by the interim administration installed with crucial military support following the January 11, 2007 proclamation of state of emergency. PTI

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/E7B08065C0836DEB65257439001D308D?OpenDocument

DHAKA (Reuters) - The Bangladesh Awami League submitted a petition on Monday signed by 2.5 million people to the office of the head of the interim government seeking the release of detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Awami officials said they collected the signatures, mostly of her followers and supporters in the capital Dhaka, over the last few weeks to pressure the army-backed authority to set her free.

Hasina has been detained in a makeshift jail inside the parliament compound in Dhaka since her arrest in July 2007 on alleged charges of corruption.

Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001, denied the charges, saying they were false and motivated, and designed to destroy her political career.

Officials at the office of government head Fakhruddin Ahmed received the petition, along with bundles of papers with the signatures of Hasina supporters, television showed.

Acting Awami League chief Zillur Rahman earlier said the party would collect more signatures countrywide to achieve the freedom of Hasina, who has been suffering from erratic blood pressure as well as ear and eye ailments.

Her doctors have advised her to get treatment abroad, preferably in the United States where she had been treated earlier for a hearing impairment, caused by grenade blasts at a Dhaka rally in August, 2004.

Fakhruddin’s government has yet to agree to that advice.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSDHA4250020080428

UNB, Dhaka

Awami League leadership on Sunday said the incumbent caretaker government is ‘isolated from the people’ and alleged that the country is now on the way to ruination through the activities of this government.

“There is no alternative to elected government… only an elected government can solve all the existing crises of the country. This government cannot deliver because it is isolated from the people,” AL senior presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said. He asked the government to hold the parliamentary election first after freeing detained party chief Sheikh Hasina.

Amu was addressing an extension meeting of Awami Jubo League, the youth front of the party, presided over by its acting Chairman Dr Mijanur Rahman at its Bangabandhu Avenue office. Another presidium member Abdur Razzaq said that AL is now observing peaceful programmes like hunger strike and signature campaign, but the party would go for a strong movement to meet their five-point demands including unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina. “We will unite people through launching a movement and free our leader.

We will participate in the parliamentary election after freeing her,” he said and warned the government that the party would not accept any election ahead of the parliamentary elections.

AL presidium member Tofael Ahmed said that if Sheikh Hasina is not freed the party would go for a tough movement to free her.

“Our street movement would be turned into a mass upsurge to realize our five-point demands, but we don’t want to go for that,” he said, urging the government to release Sheikh Hasina before going for street agitation.

Tofael said they don’t want any elections prior to the parliamentary polls and Sheikh Hasina’s release is essential to make the parliamentary polls acceptable.

Jubo League leaders at the meeting assured the top AL leaders that they would do everything according to the direction of the central leaders to make their countrywide token hunger strike programme scheduled on April 29 a success.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/04/28/news0389.htm

Dhaka: An operative of the banned Harkat ul Jihad Islami (HuJI) has said detained ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the main target of their grenade attack that had left 24 dead on August 21, 2004, officials and reports said on Saturday.

The attempt failed because of “too much hurry” by the assailants during the attack, court sources quoted HuJI operative Arif Hasan Sumon, who was arrested on April 12, as telling before a magistrate in a confessional statement. Sumon told the magistrate that 12 people took part in the attack. (PTI)

http://howrah.org/World/10515.html

Cherie Blair QC Thursday expressed concern over the health condition of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and requested the government to send her to USA for treatment, reports UNB.

Cherie, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, had 23-minute one-to-one consultations with Hasina in the court room.

Hasina again fell sick in the dock prompting the special court to adjourn the defence-discharge hearing in the barge-mounted power plant case till April 30. Hasina was brought to Square Hospital from the special court.

“I”m concerned about her health. Her health is not good. In any way, the government should send her to USA for her treatment,” Cherie Blair told reporters after the consultation with Hasina.

Cherie, who came here to observe the case proceedings and to advise Hasina’’s attorneys, said the judicial process in Bangladesh must comply with international standard and human rights.

“I have advised Hasina and her legal team for her own safety,” she said, adding: “It is important that we should take new proceeding against her detention.”

Cherie said it is a threat to her right to life and amounts to inhuman infringement, which is contrary to the constitution of Bangladesh. Mentioning the case of Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, she said, “I”m aware that Bangladesh bordering with Burma, a country which is not known as supporter of the rule of law.”

Cherie Blair said in Burma, there is another woman political leader being detained “and I won”t like to think Bangladesh was going along that route and its international image is hurt.” Leader of National League for Democracy and a noted Prisoner of Conscience Suu Kyi has been detained by military junta in Myanmar since July 20, 1989.

Cherie said: “I”m sure, the government and people of Bangladesh seem to be upholding human rights and rule of law. “And I”m sure, they would not want to see Sheikh Hasina brought to such a situation that her right to life is being undermined by such inhuman and degrading treatment.”

She hoped that Hasina would be released so she can go to America for emergency treatment, which she needs and deserves. Asked whether trial under the emergency power rules is contradictory to human rights, Cherie said she would advise Hasina’’s lawyers how to proceed with the cases in this situation.

Earlier, Cherie along with her South African colleague Max du Plessis witnessed the trial proceedings when Hasina’’s counsel Towfique Nawaz was making his arguments for discharging the charge against her client.

http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/200804264754/country/send-hasina-to-usa-for-treatment-cherie.html