Detained former Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina was hospitalised yesterday for “unstable” blood pressure, an official said. Sheikh Hasina, 60, was taken to hospital for a routine check-up, but doctors found her blood pressure was unstable, said John Gomes, general manager of the Square Hospital where she was admitted.
“They checked her several times and each time her pressure was found to be low and unstable. She has been given medicines but she will be observed at the hospital for a while,” Gomes said. Sheikh Hasina has been detained on corruption charges since last July by the country’s military-backed government and was hospitalised for several days last month complaining of ear trouble, high blood pressure and other ailments.
Her hearing in her left ear was severely damaged in a 2004 grenade assassination attempt and she also has failing eye sight. In February, Sheikh Hasina, who was premier from 1996 to 2001, went on trial for allegedly extorting 435,000 dollars from a power company owner. The trial was adjourned after her lawyers challenged the legality of the case.
Bangladesh’s caretaker government took power in January 2007 after months of turmoil and violence sparked by Awami League allegations of vote-rigging against the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The interim government has vowed to clean up Bangladesh’s notoriously corrupt politics before restoring democracy later this year.
BNP leader and the country’s most recent prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and some 150 other high-profile politicians have also been held in the government’s corruption crackdown.
Meanwhile, the Awami League has linked the success of any dialogue with Bangladesh’s caretaker government to the release of its detained chief. A senior leader of the party was yesterday quoted as saying that a dialogue with the government would be meaningless if Hasina was not sent to the US for treatment.
The party has launched a campaign, beginning with a signature drive, to press the demand that Hasina, a former prime minister, be released on parole.
But Home Adviser Major General (retired) M A Matin said the government was not thinking of releasing Hasina immediately.
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