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Former Bangladesh president

begins hunger strike

DHAKA: Bangladesh's jailed former president Hossain Mohammad Ershad, who supporters say plans to contest elections expected in June, has launched a hunger strike demanding his release and medical care, his wife said on Tuesday.

Begum Roushan Ershad told reporters Ershad, deposed in 1990 and currently serving a 23-year sentence for misuse of power and corruption, was suffering from kidney and other complications and needed immediate specialised medical care.

"He started the fast at the Dhaka Central Jail on Monday night over delays in transferring him to a hospital," she said.

Bangladesh faces fresh polls after a two-year campaign by Ershad's Jatiya Party and two other political groups last month ended the five-year rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Jail officials said on Tuesday they did not know anything about Ershad staging a fast. "We can't say anything," one said.

Leaders of his party said Ershad, Bangladesh's longest serving ruler after seizing power in a 1982 bloodless coup, would contest elections expected in June from jail if not released earlier.

Ershad won five constituencies from jail in 1991 elections. Dhaka's High Court recently rejected his appeal to be released on bail.

Bangladesh's caretaker government said on Tuesday it had appointed a new police chief as part of an administrative shake-up ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

The Home (Interior) Ministry said Mohammad Azizul Huq replaced A.S.M. Shahjahan as Inspector-General of Police on Monday.

Huq was previously chief of the Special Branch of police.

Shahjahan's departure came as political parties including the Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina demanded a purge in police and civil administration to ensure free and fair elections.

They alleged that key security and civil officials had been "politicised" by the government of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and they must be removed.-Reuter