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Last Updated: Apr 27, 2007 - 11:26:32 AM |
But the military-backed government's effort to rid the country of its two former leaders, blamed for years of misrule and rampant corruption, hit a potential snag with Zia's supporters mounting a legal challenge they said could delay her departure.
A lawyer for Zia's supporters said the High Court had asked the government to explain within five days why she was under house arrest, adding that this could keep her in the emergency-ruled country.
At least 200 journalists have been camped out at Dhaka's main international airport from late Saturday as rumours of Khaleda Zia's imminent exit from Bangladeshi politics swept the city.
Meanwhile, Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, who has been barred from returning from holiday by the government, was on Sunday refused permission to board a British Airways flight at London's Heathrow airport.
On leaving the airport, Sheikh Hasina vowed to return to Bangladesh, the Press Trust of India reported.
"I have all the right to go back because they (the Bangladesh government) have filed cases against me and I have the right to face the charges. They can't stop me from going back," PTI quoted her saying. "They have no right to stop me ... I will fight."
Abdus Sobhan Golap, one of Sheikh Hasina's secretaries, told AFP: "The BA authorities at Heathrow told her that they could not allow her to travel to Dhaka on its flight due to security reasons."
"She will stay at her sister's residence in London for some time and then decide her future course of action," he added.
A BA spokesman said, "We received written notification from the Civil Aviation Authority in Bangladesh, which was also sent to other airlines that operate to Dhaka, that a passenger has been banned from entering Bangladesh.
"As a result, we were not able to accept them for travel on BA."
The communication was received from the Bangladeshi CAA within the past week, the spokeswoman said, without specifying the date.
Murder allegations were filed against Sheikh Hasina in her absence.
She is accused of responsibility for the death of at least four people who were beaten to death by alleged Awami League activists during a protest in the capital last October.
The government wants to exile both Sheikh Hasina and Zia, the leader of the country's other main political party, as part of a campaign to clean up Bangladesh's notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional political system.
Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led a coalition government until last October.
Zia had been due to leave Bangladesh earlier, but the Amar Desh newspaper, which is owned by her political secretary, said government representatives met her several times on Saturday.
"During the talks, Khaleda Zia told them that she does not want to travel on any special plane. It delayed her departure," the newspaper said, quoting sources close to Zia.
"She was later told to stay ready with her family to board on a half hour's notice," it added. "She will leave the country for Saudi Arabia at any moment today (Sunday)."
The government's corruption crackdown has seen the arrest of scores of prominent figures with links to both parties including Zia's influential elder son Tareque Rahman.
It has pledged to hold elections before the end of 2008 after completing its anti-graft reforms, designed to prevent a repeat of the chaos that caused elections scheduled for January to be cancelled and emergency rule imposed.
Zia is reported to have agreed to go into exile in return for leniency for both her sons. Her younger son Arafat Rahman was briefly arrested last week and also faces graft allegations.
Zia and Sheikh Hasina, known as the "battling begums" for their longstanding personal rivalry, have ruled the country alternately since democracy was reinstated in 1991. Begum is a Muslim honorific.
Source:Ocnus.net 2007
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