DHAKA, 22 April 2007 — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia yesterday met her jailed elder son in the nation’s capital as part of a deal to go into exile within a couple of days, an intelligence official said. Under the deal, Khaleda met her son Tarique Rahman, who is in jail now awaiting trial in an extortion case, the official said.
There has been no on-the-record confirmation about the reported exile but the official confirmed that Khaleda would leave the country along with her younger son and other family members. He did not give a firm timeline but said it could happen any time within the next few days.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Secretary-General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan yesterday urged the party to remain strong after a leading independent newspaper, quoting an unnamed source, said several senior party figures planned to make a grab for the leadership if Khaleda left.
The report also quoted the source as saying that Khaleda was furious at the apparent disloyalty of some of her party colleagues. “I will urge the party workers not to be misled by misguided statements. It’s difficult time and we have to be united,” Bhuiyan told reporters.
Meanwhile, a close aide to another former prime minister, Hasina Wajed, said she will board a plane in London today for the journey back to Bangladesh despite a reported ban on her return. But as Khaleda was apparently preparing to leave, Hasina was poised to fly from London to Dhaka.
“We’ve ticket in our hands with confirmation,” Abdus Sobhan Golap, Hasina’s close aide said in London.
Hasina is scheduled to board a British Airways flight at Heathrow airport today to arrive in Bangladesh tomorrow, he said.
It was not known if BA staff would allow her to board the plane.
The two bitter opponents head the country’s largest political parties, whose supporters fought weeks of bloody street battles prompting authorities in January to declare emergency rule and delay that month’s national elections.
The current military-backed government has reportedly been pressuring the two women to go into exile to calm the country and allow for new elections to be held.
The interim government has accused Hasina of making “inflammatory statements” about the government and said her return could be a destabilizing factor.
Media reports say authorities have ordered she not be allowed back into the country, and told airlines not to allow her to board any incoming flights, media reports said Thursday.
Authorities have also charged Hasina with abetting the murder of four protesters during a riot in the capital in October.
