DHAKA - Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, the head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was ordered on Monday to appear in court to answer the charge of sedition, a charge bound to infuriate her supporters.
The chief metropolitan magistrate court of Dhaka accepted the case against her and ordered her to appear on March 3.
The case was filed by a lawyer with the Bangladesh Supreme Court, complaining that remarks Khaleda made last month about the 1971 war of independence were seditious. She had said there were "controversies" over the numbers who died.
Politics in poverty-stricken Bangladesh has for decades been marred by violent protests and bickering between supporters of Khaleda and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
