April 20, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1429

DHAKA, April 19: Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been under detention since last year, was admitted to hospital on Saturday after her blood pressure became unstable, doctors said.

Hasina, 60, has been held in a building inside parliament since her arrest last July to face charges of graft, abuse of power and extortion.

“We found her blood-pressure fluctuating during a routine check-up,” a doctor at a Dhaka hospital, where she was admitted, told reporters. “She will remain in intensive care until her blood pressure returns to normal.”

Security has been tightened in Dhaka with dozens of riot police deployed around the hospital to prevent demonstrations by her supporters who have been demanding her release.

Hasina, who leads the Awami League party, has been suffering from ear and eye ailments, and was in hospital last month

Her family and party men have urged the country’s army-backed interim administration to allow her to travel overseas for medical treatment, preferably to the United States where her children live.But the government has rejected the plea saying she could get adequate medical treatment at home.

Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001, has denied any wrongdoing. She is among 170 political figures who have been detained by the administration as part of its campaign against corruption ahead of elections later this year.—Reuters