AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil in a letter to Communications Adviser Maj Gen (retired) MA Matin yesterday made the request.

He wrote, "This is to inform you that the Awami League president and daughter of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina, will return home on April 23."

It should be mentioned here that the security personnel assigned to ensure protection for her were withdrawn immediately after she had left the country, the letter reads.

"So, I earnestly request you to take necessary security measures for our leader on her return to the country," Jalil continued.

A two-member AL delegation comprising its Assistant Publicity Secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil and Assistant Office Secretary BM Mozammel Haque met Matin at his office and handed him the letter.

In reply, the communications adviser told the AL leaders that he is not the one to make the security arrangements, it is rather the duty of the home ministry. He, however, assured them that he would talk to the ministry over the matter.

The decision to send the letter came at an informal meeting of the senior AL leaders visiting Jalil at a city hospital where he is undergoing treatment, said a party insider.

They decided that Jalil should both talk and write to the chief of National Coordination Committee over Hasina's return and security measurers.

Before dispatching the letter, the AL general secretary had informed the former prime minister of the decision. He was to talk to the adviser last night about the issue.

Speculations have been rife that the government would not allow Hasina to return. The recent extortion and murder charges brought against her only added to the rumours.

In response to the developments at home, she had decided to get back home on April 14, much earlier than the planned date that was sometime in the last week of April.

But on April 11, she postponed her coming back on request from the caretaker government high-ups.