Bangladesh frees opposition leader Zia after two weeks

Reuters/Dhaka

Supporters said Khaleda had been prevented from leaving her residence before and after a violence-plagued parliamentary election won by the ruling Awami League. The outcome was never in doubt after a boycott by her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). 

But a spokesman for the BNP told reporters that Zia left her home for a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Lee Jung at her office in the city yesterday.

Zia, also head of the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance, last visited her office on December 27. Security forces were deployed around her residence from December 25.

Osman Farruk, a senior leader of BNP, said that until the government freed other party officials and stopped arrests and harassment “we cannot say it is a positive step”.

The government has denied holding the BNP leader under “house arrest”. But Mashiur Rahman, an adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said yesterday Zia had been prevented from leaving her residence because she had called on activists to carry out violence to resist the election.

“Since the election has been over now she has every right to go on with healthy political activities,” Rahman added.

Today a new cabinet will be sworn in at a ceremony to which Zias is also invited, cabinet secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters.

Eighteen people were killed in separate incidents on election day last Sunday, and voting was halted at more than 400 polling stations. More than 100 people were killed in the run-up to the ballot, mostly in rural areas, and fears of violence kept many voters away.

There was a low turnout, and fewer than half of seats were contested amid heavy security in a poll shunned by international observers as flawed.

The country’s $22bn garment industry, which accounts for 80% of exports, has been disrupted by opposition transport blockades. BNP officials said party supporters would maintain the blockade today.

On Friday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned a belligerent opposition that her government would be forced to be tough to contain ongoing violence and restore normalcy in the country.

Urging Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Zia to stop vandalism and killing people, she said: “If you (Zia) want to say something, first shun the violence and stop killing people.”

The prime minister was speaking at the Awami League’s first public rally after the January 5 general elections, which were boycotted by the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance and other political parties, The Daily Star reported.

Hasina said the BNP-Jamaat alliance has indulged in violence in different parts of the country killing people, attacking Hindus, her party’s men and law enforcers, the report said.

“Now we are in the government and people have given us their mandates, so we go tough as much as needed to contain the violence and bring back normalcy,” she was quoted as saying.

Urging Zia not to carry on with the destructive activities, Hasina said: “You won’t gain anything from this as you could not prevent the election.”

The prime minister said the war crimes trials will continue and its verdicts would be executed as this was the national demand.