"Politics is now banned. People are deprived of their political right and right to express their opinion," the AL chief said on the occasion of 26th anniversary of her homecoming.

Senior leaders of the AL and its front organisations, workers and other people went to her Sudha Sadan residence to greet her on the occasion.

Hasina, eldest daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, returned from abroad on May 17 in 1981, six years after Bangabandhu and most of her family members were assassinated by a section of disgruntled army personnel on August 15 in 1975. The AL had unanimously elected her party chief during the rule of the then president Ziaur Rahman, who, Hasina alleged, tried to prevent her homecoming.

Congratulating the people on her homecoming day, the AL chief said, "The main goals of my struggle for the last 26 years are to establish fundamental, democratic, constitutional and voting rights of the people. I struggled so that the people could get a better life and the poor no longer remain poor."

She thanked the media men for their role in 'this suffocating situation'.

"I will continue my struggle until people's rights are established. My struggle is not for party leadership or state power," the AL chief said. If necessary, she would sacrifice her life for establishing people's rights as her father Bangabandhu had done.

"I returned home in 1981 during autocratic rule, and my only dream was to establish people's rights and restore democracy in the country. And now my objective is to cerate a bright future for the people and establish their rights," she said.

In an emotion-choked voice, Hhasina said, "When I left the country on July 30 in 1975, I had all my family members around. When I returned, thousands of my party leaders, workers and other people received me but there were none of them. I went to Banani graveyard only to see rows of graves of my nearest ones."

Those who greeted Hasina included party leaders Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Jalil, Suranjit Sengupta, Motia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Syed Ashraful Islam, Mukul Bose, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Abdul Mannan, Sultan Mohammad Mansur Ahmed, Abdur Rahman, Asaduzzaman Noor, Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Prof Abu Sayeed, Dr Dipu Moni and Advocate Sahara Khatun.