Thaindian News

Dhaka, June 12 (IANS) Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina left for the US Thursday morning for medical treatment, a day after she was released from 11-month detention for eight weeks. “I am well,” Hasina was quoted by The Star Online as saying before her departure.

Hasina, 61, urgently requires treatment for fluctuating blood pressure, failing vision in one eye and damage to her ear after a grenade attack in 2004.

Her telephonic talk Wednesday with Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed, who heads Bangladesh’s caretaker government, and her meeting with four of the advisors (ministers) would get the dialogue for the general elections going, media reports said Thursday.

The Awami League, the country’s oldest political party that she heads, has formally said it would join the political dialogue.

Xinhua adds: Hasina will meet her younger sister Sheikh Rehana at Heathrow airport in London on way to Boston where she will meet her lone son Sajiv Wazed Joy, Hasan Mahmud, a close aid to Hasina, told reporters Thursday.

The Awami League leader will also fly to Canada to meet her daughter Saima Wazed Putul before leaving for Florida, he said.

Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh 1991-1996, was released Wednesday for an interim period after having been detained for almost 11 months since July 16 last year on corruption charges.

The executive order for her release was signed Tuesday night.

The order says the government decided to release Sheikh Hasina for an interim period of eight weeks from June 11 to Aug 6 for medical treatment abroad following recommendations by a medical board.