Khaleda arrest, office search once police get warrants: Hasina

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that opposition leader and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia's office will be searched and she will be arrested once the police received the requisite warrants.

"The court has ordered the search. The moment the order shall reach Gulshan Police Station, they will search (Zia's office)," Hasina said in the parliament, according to a bdnews24.com report.

"When the order for the arrest reaches, the arrest will be made," the prime minister said.

A Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant for Zia on February 25 in graft cases filed by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). On March 4, the court upheld the arrest warrant.

Another court on March 1 ordered the BNP chief's Dhaka office to be searched in connection with the bombing of a protest march led by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan on February 16. Zia was accused of instigating the attack and harbouring fugitives and explosives in her office.

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had earlier said that the warrants were yet to reach the police, while BNP lawyers claimed the police were not being sent the warrants as they were "illegal".

Police had blocked Khaleda from leaving her office on January 3 amid fears of a violent political confrontation in the run-up to the first anniversary of the general election last year.

Zia's 20-party opposition alliance, which boycotted the general election held on January 5 last year, has enforced a non-stop nationwide blockade since January 5 and shutdowns since February this year, demanding fresh parliamentary polls under a non-party caretaker government system.

More than 100 people have been killed so far in the ensuing political violence and most of them have been killed in fire bomb attacks on public vehicles. Frequent bomb blasts, arson attacks and numerous strikes have crippled normal life in Bangladesh.

--Indo-Asian News Search

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