DHAKA, April 25: Bangladesh’s interim government said on Wednesday it has lifted a ban on the return of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from overseas, and was not pressuring another former leader, Khaleda Zia, to go into exile.

The military-backed government had barred Hasina from returning in an order issued April 18.

She was blocked on Sunday from boarding a flight in London en route home from the United States.

Local media and intelligence sources had reported that Hasina's archrival, Zia, was under virtual house arrest and was being forced to go into exile abroad.

The government denied the allegations on Wednesday, saying, “There was never any pressure on Zia to go abroad, and there is no restriction on her movements.”In a separate statement, the government said it was withdrawing the ban on Hasina's return.

The interim government says it hopes to hold general elections before the end of next year. Media reports have said it wanted to remove Zia and her archrival, Hasina, to ease tensions before the polls.

“We welcome the government’s statement,” Mannan Bhuiyan, a spokesman for Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, told reporters on Wednesday in Dhaka.

HASINA HAPPY: Shortly after the lifting of the ban, Sheikh Hasina told a Bangladeshi television channel from London that she was happy at the decision.