Sheikh Hasina charged with murder of five people

DHAKA: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was on Wednesday charged with the murder of five people during political violence in October last year, when her arch rival and ex-Premier Khaleda Zia handed over power to a caretaker administration.

"Police today submitted the chargesheet against her at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court along with 46 others after investigations by our detective branch," a police officer said.

Court officials said the magistrate fixed April 22 for hearing the murder charge.

Fifty-nine-year-old Hasina is the chief of the main opposition Awami League and also heads a 19-party opposition alliance.

Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islam, the main partner of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four party alliance, filed the case in which Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil was also accused of involvement in the incident.

It was not clear what role Hasina played in the killings.

The case came two days after chairman of a private sector power plant sued Hasina, now in the US on a personal visit, on an "extortion" charge involving $434,000.

During a daylong clash between rivals on October 28 last year, at least seven people were killed at downtown Purana Paltan area while Jamaat claimed five of them to be their activists.

The murder charge against Hasina came a day after it was announced that a high-power task force will oversee probe into graft charges against her.

Leaders of her party said yesterday that she planned to return home soon to face the corruption charges.

Awami League has so far not reacted to the murder charge against her.

Meanwhile, the left leaning Workers Party, a member of Hasina's grouping, sued Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and nine others for the murder of one of their activists in the October 28 violence.

"We today submitted the charge sheets in the metropolitan magistrate court against the accused in two separate cases after investigations carried out by the detective branch," an official of the downtown Paltan police station here said.

During the violence on October 28 last year, at least seven people were killed in the Purana Paltan area here. While Jamaat claimed five of them to be their activists, the Workers Party said one of the victims belonged to them.