Bangla Prez dissolves Parl; frees ex-PM Zia

Dhaka: Bangladesh President dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim government and new elections a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin's office also announced that the leader of the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest.

Student protesters had threatened more demonstrations if Parliament was not dissolved. The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh's 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means to reserve jobs for allies of the ruling party. About 400 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country since July.

‘No provision for asylum in UK for Hasina’

New Delhi:British immigration rules do not allow individuals to travel to that country to seek asylum or temporary refuge, the UK Home Office said on Tuesday, amid persistent speculation ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina, now in Delhi, will fly to London to claim sanctuary.