Former Bangla PM Khaleda Zia may be released next week

DHAKA: Detained former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, languishing in prison for over a year on graft charges, may be freed on bail by next week, her lawyers have claimed.

However, she will have to go through legal procedures for her release, a senior government leader has said.

"We expect her to be released as she now needs bail from courts in only two cases," the Prothom Alo newspaper quoted one of Zia's counsels as saying, a day after her high profile elder son Tarique Rahman, who was being tried in a number graft charges was released.

The lawyer's comment came as Commerce Adviser of the interim cabinet Hossain Zillur Rahman said yesterday that the government was “advancing the political process” without hampering the legal procedure for the release of Zia, the chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

“She (Zia) has to seek bail in all the cases she is facing... She will be released once she is granted bail,” Rahman told newsmen.

Zia's archrival Sheikh Hasina of Awami League was released on government ‘executive order’ in June this year for treatment abroad.

The government at that time had said a process was underway to free the BNP chief in identical manner.

Both the former premiers have been charged under a number of corruption cases as part of a massive anti-graft campaign launched by the interim government soon after its installation with crucial military support after the January 11, 2007 proclamation of the state of emergency.

Source : Times Of India

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Zardari backs US against terrorism

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan stands with the US against international terrorism, the Muslim nation's presidential front-runner wrote in a column appearing on Thursday amid furor over a US-led cross-border attack in Pakistani territory.

The raid in the South Waziristan tribal region was the first known foreign ground assault in Pakistan against a Taliban haven. The Pakistani government summoned the US ambassador to protest the incursion, which officials said killed at least 15 people, including civilians.

An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US troops conducted the raid Wednesday about 1 mile beyond the Afghan frontier.

The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target. But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida's no. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi condemned the attack in an impassioned speech to lawmakers on Thursday, saying it “violated the sovereignty of Pakistan.” He also said “no important terrorist or high-value target” was killed.

“Innocent citizens, including women and children, have been targeted,” Qureshi said. Officials said they had no indication US forces captured anyone in the raid. A foreign ministry spokesman said the government had no information al-Qaida leaders were in the area at the time.


Source : Times Of India

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