DHAKA Jan. 4, Reuter: Bangladesh President Hossain Mohammad Ershad left on Monday for a four day visit to Egypt despite mounting protests at home against his rule.
Foreign Ministry officials said the two countries were expected to sign a shipping agreement and discuss air services and other possible areas of cooperation during Ershad’s stay.
Ershad, accompanied by his wife and a 34member team of Ministers and officials, will make brief stopovers in Iraq and Saudi Arabia on his way home for talks on bilateral and Islamic matters, the officials said.
Ershad undertakes the visit in the midst of an opposition campaign to topple him after nearly six years in power.
Twenty-one major proposition parties rejected on Sunday government plans to hold Parliamentary elections on February 28.
Instead, they vowed to continue a national campaign to force Ershad to resign and transfer power to a caretaker government to hold free and fair polls.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 8, 1988
