Bangladesh issues arrest warrant for Khaleda Zia

DHAKA:  A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia over a deadly firebombing attack last year, a prosecutor said.

The court also issued arrest warrants for 27 leaders and activists of Khaledas Bangladesh Nationalist Party in connection with the petrol bomb attack on a bus during a party protest in Dhaka in January last year.

"The court passed the order after accepting the charges against them," public prosecutor Shah Alam Talukdar said.

Early last year, at least 120 people were killed and hundreds injured in political violence, most in petrol bomb attacks on vehicles, amid transport blockades and strikes by the opposition aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladeshi politics has been mired for years in rivalry between Hasina and Khaleda.  Both women are related to former national leaders, and they have alternated as prime minister for most of the past two decades.