Bangladesh president orders release of jailed ex-PM Khaleda Zia

DHAKA: Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin on Monday ordered the release of jailed former prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia, hours after her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina was ousted and the military took power.

The president’s press team said in a statement that a meeting led by Shahabuddin had “decided unanimously to free Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia immediately”.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, along with the head of the navy and airforce, and top leaders of several opposition parties including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami party, attended the meeting.

“The meeting has also decided to free all the people who have been arrested during the student protests,” the statement added.

Earlier Monday, Waker said in a broadcast to the nation on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.

“The meeting decided to form an interim government immediately”, it added.

Hasina had sought to quell nationwide protests against her government since early July but she fled the country after brutal unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people were killed.

Zia, 78, is in poor health and confined to hospital after she was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.