International   

Suffocating situation: Hasina

Haroon Habib

DHAKA: I nternational pressure on Bangladesh's military-backed caretaker Government is growing for lifting the state of emergency and holding parliamentary elections at the earliest. Fifteen U.S. Senators, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, have urged the rulers to lift the emergency and restore civic and political rights to all citizens. Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina has said the country is caught in a suffocating spell of "curtailed rights" as people have been stripped of their fundamental rights.

"No one in the country has any political rights today. People cannot speak their minds. The country is passing through a spell of suffocation." The caretaker Government has revived a corruption case against Ms. Hasina filed during the Khaleda Zia tenure in connection with a power plant deal. The High Court has fixed July 25 for hearing the case.

Visit postponed

The former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, postponed her visit to Singapore "for [medical] treatment" shortly after her youngest son, Arafat Rahman Coco, was charged in an extortion case.

Ms. Khaleda's another son, Tarique Rahman, who is already in jail, is facing charges of corruption. BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan told journalists, the beleaguered former Prime Minister described the extortion case as "false" and urged the authorities concerned to refrain from "harassment by filing such false cases".

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

LTTE stole over 130,000 passports, alleges envoy
Uncertainty over truce
First internal situation, then Kashmir: Musharraf
Colombo in touch with Male
Daniel Pearl case "detenu" dies
North Korea may close Yongbyon
Suffocating situation: Hasina
Bicycles vs the rest
Castro slams Latin American pacts with U.S.
Racism charge denied
Britain suspends online visa applications from India

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu