Hasina's plan to travel to UK hits roadblock
Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina is unlikely to move out of India for the next couple of days, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday
PTI
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Protests broke out in Bangladesh after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday. FILE PHOTO: PTI
New Delhi, 6 Aug
Former Bangladesh prime minister
Sheikh Hasina's plan to travel to London has hit a roadblock over some
"uncertainties" and she is unlikely to move out of India for the next
couple of days, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Hasina, who landed at the Hindon
airbase on Monday in a C-130J military transport aircraft hours after resigning
as the prime minister, has been shifted to an unspecified location under tight
security, they said.
The former Bangladesh prime
minister, accompanied by her sister Sheikh Rehana, planned to leave for London
from India to take temporary refuge but the option is not being pursued now.
This is after the UK government indicated that she may not get legal protection
against any possible probe into the massive violent protests in her country,
they said.
The Awami League leader planned to
travel to London through India and her aides informed Indian authorities about
it before she landed in Hindon, the people cited above said.
Hasina decided to travel to London
as Rehana's daughter Tulip Siddiq is a member of the British Parliament. Tulip
is economic secretary to the Treasury and Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate.
In a statement, British foreign
secretary David Lammy said in London on Monday that Bangladesh has seen
unprecedented levels of violence and tragic loss of life in the last two weeks
and people of the country "deserve a full and independent UN-led
investigation into the events".
The people in the know said Hasina
has apprised New Delhi about her possible future steps. It is also learnt that
Hasina has family members in Finland as well and that is why she also
contemplated leaving for the northern European country.
While saying that Hasina's travel
plans have hit certain issues and she may stay in the country for the next
couple of days, the people also described the situation as dynamic with no
definitive path or clarity on the matter.
The 76-year-old who ruled the South
Asian country with an iron fist for 15 years, resigned as the prime minister
following the massive protests that initially began as an agitation against a
job quota scheme but weeks later morphed into a mass movement demanding her
ouster from power.
The controversial quota system
provided for 30 per cent reservations in civil services jobs for the families
of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war. Hasina's Awami League retained
power in the parliamentary election in January that was boycotted by the
opposition parties.
The former Bangladesh prime
minister left her official residence Ganabhavan in a military chopper to an
airbase, the sources said. From the airbase, she flew into Hindon in a C-130
military transport aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force, they said.
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