Bangla Premier Hasina warns rival Zia of arrest ahead of polls

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday warned her arch-rival Khaleda Zia, chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), that she will ''one day'' be arrested for ''unleashing terrorism and killing people'' in the guise of anti-government protests.

"We believe in justice, the opposition leader will be charged for giving orders for killing and burning people to death in the name of a movement, and Inshallah her trial would be held on Bangladesh soil … and we will hold this trial," Hasina told a rally of her party, the Awami League, in her hometown of Faridpur in western Gopalganj district.

The prime minister's comments came even as security forces sequestrated Khaleda Zia's residence, without actually saying she was under house arrest. Witnesses said police in riot gear took positions around Zia's house in the upmarket Gulshan area of Dhaka, barring entrance to party activists and other visitors.

"We have been working for whatever we think is required to maintain law and order and security of all," police commissioner Benajir Ahmed told reporters, but refused to elaborate.

The move comes ahead of a massive anti-government rally planned in the capital Dhaka on Sunday demanding postponement of the national elections scheduled for 5 January.

Commenting on the proposed rally, the prime minister said, "Khaleda Zia has called the rally on the day when the people of Bangladesh had voted the Awami League to power decisively.''

The Awami League came to power by defeating the BNP in the ninth parliamentary election of the country in December 2008.

Zia has urged people to take part in her party's 'March for Democracy' on Sunday (a working day in the largely Islamic country) to mount pressure on the government to shelve the election, which is being boycotted by the opposition alliance.

With the two leaders remaining at each other's throats, political violence has increased in Bangladesh and has claimed around 130 lives since October.

The BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance escalated their anti-government campaign after Hasina turned down its demand to step down and install a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls.