Former Bangladesh prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia was taken to a court on Sunday to face a graft charge involving a Canadian oil exploration firm, officials said. Security was tightened around the makeshift court in the sprawling parliament compound for her first appearance since her arrest in September last year. “The former prime minister was produced before a judge as the court was preparing to start formal prosecution against her,” a court official said. The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed charges against Khaleda in December for failing to recover millions of dollars in compensation for environmental damage caused by fire at a drilling site in northeastern Bangladesh in 2005. Khaleda was prime minister from 2001-06. The ACC also filed a similar case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Meanwhile, police clashed with thousands of garment workers in southwest Bangladesh Sunday during fresh protests over low wages and soaring food prices, police said. The clashes occurred after workers at Kalurghat industrial area tried to barricade a highway, city police chief Akbar Ali said. A nurse at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital said four workers had been admitted, including two with bullet wounds. In another development, authorities arrested more than 250 political activists from Awami League and BNP, in a new nationwide wave of arrests, the parties said Sunday.
