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| 'Khaleda might leave B'desh under deal with govt' | | |
DHAKA, APR 17
Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia has reportedly agreed to leave the country under a "negotiated deal" with the interim government on the condition that her sons will be allowed to join her.
"After prolonged suspense, former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia finally agreed to leave the country under tremendous pressure from the military-backed caretaker government and on condition that her sons will also be allowed to join her," The Daily Star reported quoting unmamed government sources.
No official version was available on the "deal" but several newspapers carried reports on her going into exile as rumours were rife last night that Zia had agreed to leave the country with her family and might fly out at any time.
The release of her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko less than 24 hours after the army-led joint forces arrested him early yesterday from his mother's residence in the cantonment here also fuelled speculation about her leaving the country.
Zia's high-profile elder son Tarique Rahman, who too was arrested from the same residence last month, is now in jail on several criminal and graft charges.
According to The Daily Star, which quoted a "highly-placed government source", the Zias will leave for Saudi Arabia in a couple of days and she will initially stay there with a one-month visa to perform Umrah Haj. Her permanent residence there will be finalised when she reaches Saudi Arabia, it reported.
"Everything has been finalised...Now only the formalities, including getting a visa, remain to be completed, which might be completed in a day," the source said, adding the Saudi government had agreed to host Zia and her family if she left Bangladesh "willingly".
The Prothom Alo and other newspapers said initially Zia was determined not to leave Bangladesh, but finally agreed when her family members including her younger brother, retired Major Syeed Iskandar, persuaded her to leave yesterday evening and authorities allowed her younger son to return home after interrogation on several corruption charges.
According to reports, the latest developments made uncertain the scheduled return home of Zia's archrival, former premier and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina who is now in the US on a private visit, on April 23.
The Alo reported that senior Awami League leaders late yesterday decided to contact an adviser of the interim government of Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed to seek clearance and might ask her to postpone her return if the "situation appears to be negative".
A Bangladeshi businessman last week filed an "extortion" complaint against her, alleging she had forced him to pay 3 crore Taka in exchange for allowing him to install a 110 MW power plant while police charged her with 45 others for the killing of six people in a political clash in November 2006 in line with a case filed by fundamentalist Jamaat-e- Islami, a partner of Zia's BNP-led four-party government.
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