Current political situation in Bangladesh

Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh's former prime minister and main opposition leader, has been put under house arrest, her aides said today as police surrounded her home in the capital Dhaka.

Leaders of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party said she had been prevented from leaving her house since last Thursday after she called 'a rally for democracy' against Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government, and in protest at her refusal to allow a caretaker government to preside over next Sunday's general election.

The BNP and other main opposition parties have boycotted the election and the Commonwealth, European Union and United States dealt a blow to its credibility when they refused to send observers.

Two weeks earlier, the leader of the country's third largest party, former military ruler General Ershad, was also detained when he was forcibly taken to a military hospital. His supporters said he had been detained to force his party to contest the general election and bolster its credibility.

Governments in Bangladesh have, until now, stepped down in favour of neutral caretaker administrations in the run up to general elections. The country's opposition parties argue that no free and fair election can take place in Bangladesh under a "political government" with its control of the election commission, the administration and the police.

The election on January 5 will now only see contests between candidates from the governing Awami League and its allies. In more than half of the 300 seats the Awami League candidate will not be challenged.

The EU recently said that "the necessary conditions for transparent, inclusive and credible elections," were not present.

Thousands of police on Sunday cordoned off the headquarters of the Bangladesh's main opposition party and used water cannons to disperse anti-government activists in a bid to prevent a mass rally calling on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to cancel next month's elections.

Military troops have also been deployed across the country to help the civil administration conduct the election. Hundred and fifty-four people from Hasina's Awami League party and its allies have already been elected uncontested in 300 constituencies

.Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is the main partner of Zia's party, wants the government to halt the war crimes trials of its leaders. Zia says the trials initiated by Hasina are politically-motivated to weaken the opposition, an allegation the government has denied. Most of the suspects or convicts are top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, which had campaigned against the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. It is also blamed for forming citizens' brigades as collaborators of the Pakistani military during the war.

Jamaat-e-Islami is banned from taking part in the election.

Molla was one of five Islamists and other politicians sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal, which the opposition says is aimed at eradicating its leaders.

The sentences have triggered riots and plunged the country into its worst violence since independence. Some 250 people have now been killed in street protests since January, when the first verdicts were handed down.
source..The Telegraph