Thousands of political activists went on a symbolic hunger strike in Bangladesh Tuesday urging the military-backed interim government to set free former premier Sheikh Hasina who was arrested last July to face corruption charges in a special court, according to dpa. Opposition Awami League activists clasped one another's hands forming a human chain while other supporters were in mourning dress at a street protest at the party's central office in the capital Dhaka, witnesses said. Hasina, 62, who led the Awami League to power in 2001 for a five- year term, is calling on the interim government to release her from virtual house arrest. Zillur Rahman, who is running the Awami League as its acting chief, accused the caretaker regime of cooking up the charges of extortion levelled against Hasina. Rahman said Hasina, who wears the political mantle of her father and the country's founder president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was totally innocent. "Hasina is not at all involved in any kind of corruption but the authorities are trying to tie her up on fictitious charges," said Abdur Razzak, a member of the Awami League's highest policy-making presidium body. Under Bangladeshi election laws any person convicted of corruption in a court is disqualified from participating in any election for public office for at least five years. Hasina's hardcore supporters warned against any move to ban her from the general election expected in December this year. President Iajuddin Ahmad set up a non-party caretaker government backed by the military in January 2007 under a state of emergency to save the country from political turmoil. Politically-inspired violence escalated in the South Asian country because of the standoff between Hasina and her arch political foe and former premier Khaleda Zia.
