Dhaka, Oct 10 (IANS) With the government unlikely to heed the demand that they be released, it will be a lonely Eid for Bangladesh’s jailed former prime ministers and about 150 high profile prisoners charged with corruption.
The army-backed interim government has launched a drive against crime and corruption that has netted over 200,000 persons, choking the prisons.
The two women leaders, Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina are, however, lodged in separate bungalows in the country’s parliament complex, vacant since the elections were called off.
The high-profile prisoners will celebrate this Eid in prison, separated from their families, friends and followers, New Age newspaper reported Wednesday.
While Awami League leader Hasina has been in jail since July 16, her political rival and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Zia was imprisoned Sep 3. Both her sons, Tareque and Arafat, are in jail as are a number of former ministers and lawmakers of the Awami League and BNP.
Khaleda will not even be allowed to meet her sons on Eid.
“If they were in the same jail, they could have the chance to meet each other on the day,” said deputy inspector general (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.
Tareque is detained in an isolated cell at the Dhaka central jail and Arafat is now being treated at a city hospital.
Although other prisoners will have the chance to meet and exchange pleasantries with co-prisoners, Hasina and Khaleda will spend the occasion alone.
For them and for the other high profile prisoners — including some top businessmen, officials and university teachers — jail life has been one of austerity.
The government sanctioned 15 takas (25 US cents) per day for providing “iftar”, to enable the two women leaders to break their fast during Ramadan.
Jails usually serve “improved dishes” on Eid, the newspaper observed. This year there will be vermicelli and puffed rice in the morning, rice with fish and potatoes for lunch and pilau with beef or mutton and salad for dinner.
There will, however, be some exceptions in the meal for the two former prime ministers. “We will ask them whether they would like anything else. We will provide them with what they want in keeping with their status,” said Siddiqui.
The jail authorities have never before handled so many high-profile prisoners at a time, including two former prime ministers.
Large-scale incarceration of politicos is not new in Bangladesh. But this is the largest, and is likely to continue with more cases being filed and bail pleas being contested by the government right up to the Supreme Court.