Bangladesh ex-president Ershad critically ill

DHAKA - Former Bangladesh president Hussain Muhammed Ershad is critically ill with multiple ailments and has been moved to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a city hospital, websites reported Tuesday evening.

Physicians at the hospital said Ershad’s condition was critical.

Ershad, 80, remains the country’s longest serving head of the state who ruled between December 1983 and December 1990.

Commissioned in the Pakistan Army, he was interned as a prisoner of war during the freedom movement and was repatriated after independence.

He is an alumnus of India’s National Defence College (NDC).

As the army chief, he took absolute power and consolidated his position, winning a presidential poll in December 1983.

Ousted from power after all parties combined to oppose him, Ershad is a lawmaker and heads the Jatiya Party that he set up while in power.