New Delhi
12 June 2008
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left her country for the United States, for medical treatment. Her parole, amid her pending corruption trials, has broken a political gridlock that threatened planned national elections, this year. From our South Asia Bureau in New Delhi, VOA correspondent Steve Herman has this report.
Some political analysts suspect the interim government wants to keep the two women, known as the "battling Begums" out of Bangladesh until after December elections for parliament. Ministers of the emergency government, backed by the army, have said they want to depart by the end of the year and hand over power to successors selected as a result of democratic elections.
Chaos and street violence in 2006, blamed on the followers of the two major political parties, led to a state of emergency and prompted the military to give its blessing to an extended tenure for the caretaker leadership.