Former Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina will extend her stay in the United States indefinitely over concerns about murder charges brought against her, party officials said on Thursday.
Police charged Hasina and more than 50 others with murder on Wednesday, as the army-backed interim government's clampdown on corruption in politics entered its fourth month. "We have requested our leader to delay her return in the wake of a fictitious murder charge filed against her," Abdul Jalil, general secretary of Hasina's Awami League, told Reuters.
The request was made after senior party leaders met late on Wednesday to assess the situation, Jalil said. "An adviser to the interim government had also contacted me and Sheikh Hasina, and assured both of us that the administration would take care that her image was not tarnished," Jalil said.
He declined to name the adviser or give details. About 160 senior politicians have been detained in a crackdown on graft launched by the military-backed interim government after it took charge on January 11 and imposed a state of emergency amid widespread factional violence.
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