Click to play videoNew Delhi: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was stopped by British authorities from boarding a Dhaka-bound flight following a bar on her return by the military-backed interim government in her country.
British Airways, on which she was due to fly home, refused to issue her a boarding pass this afternoon, saying that the UK government had advised them that she has been banned from returning to Bangladesh, Hasina said.
Hasina, however, vowed to go back to Bangladesh and said "I have all the right to go back because they (Bangladesh government) has filed cases against me and I have all the right to face the charges. They can't stop me from going back".
A court in Bangladesh had issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. That's a day ahead of Hasina's scheduled return from the US to Bangladesh. The army-backed government had earlier ordered a temporary ban on her entry into the country. Hasina has been charged with murder in Bangladesh.
The murder charge relates to the death of five Jamaat-e-Islami activists last October. A Bangladesh High Court also asked the government to explain why the authorities should not be ordered to bring former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia before the court.
The government also has to clearly explain if Zia is under house arrest. The warrant comes amid news reports that the government is trying to force Hasina and her archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, into exile in order to calm a bitter division between their two political camps that has derailed the young nation's fragile democracy.
Media reports have said that Zia, who ended her latest five-year term in October and has agreed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia, is under house arrest.
The government on Wednesday accused Zia's rival Hasina of issuing ``inflammatory statements'' against the country's military-backed interim government while she was outside the country, and warned her return might create further confusion and incite hatred among the people.
Hasina, who held the office in 1996-2001, was charged with murder on April 11 while she was in the United States on a visit.
The case involves the deaths of four protesters in a riot in October at one of a series of demonstrations by her supporters accusing Zia's government of stacking the committee that was supposed to oversee January elections and rigging voter rolls.
Over 30 people died in the protests that eventually led to the cancellation of the polls and the takeover by the current military-backed government under emergency powers.
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