Security forces arrested former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the country’s election commission announced a roadmap for the cancelled parliamentary elections to be held by December 2008.

Preparation for the arrest began from the midnight on Sunday night when additional security forces cordoned off her Dhanmandi house. They asked her ailing husband and others to stay in one room, and took her to a court in a jeep.

Hasina, 59, arrived at the court — her head was covered with a white scarf, and hundreds of security personnel escorted her to the court. She has been accused of extorting about Taka 30 million (US$441,000) from a company in return for allowing it to build a power station while she was in office.

Hasina denied the allegations, saying they were aimed at keeping her from contesting the next elections. “It’s a conspiracy to stop me from speaking for the rights of the people,” Hasina told the court jammed with lawyers and journalists. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Magistrate Kamrunnaher rejected Sheikh Hasina’s bail petition and sent her to a makeshift sub-jail to face extortion charges levelled against her by a businessman.

Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League party, governed the country as prime minister from 1996 to 2001. The arrest sparked protests by Hasina’s supporters in several parts of the country, with police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators in Dhaka. Hasina’s supporters clashed with police in the capital and tried to stop a motorcade taking her to jail.

Police used batons and rubber bullets to drive away the protesters, who were chanting “Free Hasina, free Hasina”. At least 10 protesters were injured.

Authorities tightened security across the country, especially around the offices of Hasina’s party, the Awami League.

Students staged small protests at Dhaka University but were driven back by police. Protests also broke out at Tungipara, Hasina’s ancestral home in south-western Bangladesh, southern port city of Khulna and several other places across the country, local reporters said.

The government would not agree with Hasina that it was part of a conspiracy to arrest her. “She has been arrested on specific charges,” Information and law Adviser, Mainul Hosein, defended the government action. “The law will take its own course.”

Bangladesh, under a state of emergency since January 11, is being ruled by an interim government led by a former central bank governor. The chief of the caretaker administration, Fakhruddin Ahmed, whose government has vowed to fight corruption and reform electoral rules, said without naming Sheikh Hasina that no one was above the law. “Anyone involved in corruption will be tracked down and prosecuted,” he said.

Police also charged Hasina in April with abetting in the murder of four political opponents after four protesters died at a demonstration held by her Awami League party in October.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, has described the arrest as “conspiratorial” and demanded her immediate release. “It’s part of a deep-rooted conspiracy,” he told reporters in Dhaka by telephone from Washington, where he lives. “I will try to organise a protest worldwide.”

The acting president of Awami League, Zillur Rahman, said she had been arrested as part of the “minus two” formula which meant the government was determined to hold elections without Sheikh Hasina and another former prime minister the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia. “It is a conspiracy to keep her out of the election race,” he said. “So-called reformists can’t do anything so long as she is outside the prison.” 
Hasina’s Awami League is virtually facing a split over reforms. A number of senior leaders are going ahead with plans to bring about reforms in the party without her.