The Awami League (AL) sent a letter to the home ministry yesterday morning seeking permission for eight lawyers to meet the detained party chief to provide her with necessary legal aide but it did not get any response as of 8:00pm.

Meanwhile, after three days of Hasina's arrest, reformist AL leaders Abdur Razzak and Tofail Ahmed last night met the party's Acting President Zillur Rahman and expressed their firm determination to be united under the leadership of Hasina in her absence.

Expressing their concern over the arrest of the party chief, they told Zillur that there were misunderstandings within the party which should be resolved.

They also said they will extend any kind of legal assistance to free Hasina, AL sources said.

Zillur Rahman told The Daily Star last night that the two AL Presidium members came to him and said they will work together in the absence of Hasina and under her leadership.

Police sources meanwhile said the charge sheet of the extortion case in which Hasina has been shown arrested will be given within a couple of days.

According to the emergency rules, the whole trial process will also be completed in 45 days from the day the court takes the charge sheet into cognisance, they said.

The ACC on Tuesday served a notice on Hasina to submit the statement of her movable and immovable properties to the commission within seven working days. The anti-graft body will file a graft case against Hasina if she fails to submit the statement within the stipulated timeframe.

Hasina was detained on extortion charges and sent to a special jail set up in the parliament complex on Monday.

The relatives and lawyers of the former prime minister stayed on the parliament premises for over two hours and then returned since the authorities did not allow them to meet Hasina.

"We came here to meet our leader to assist her in preparing the wealth statement. We also wanted to know if she has any suggestion about the matter," Khalid Mahmud Chowhdury, Hasina's assistant personal secretary, told The Daily Star.

The authorities also allegedly returned the food Hasina's relatives brought for her lunch.

An AL activist from Natore brought a black and white television set for Hasina, but the authorities did not receive it although DIG Prisons Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told The Daily Star last evening that they will allow Hasina to watch TV without cable connection if the TV set is provided by her family.

Talking to reporters Hasina's special aide Dr Hasan Mahmud urged the caretaker government to take necessary steps soon so that Hasina's relatives, personal staff and lawyers can meet her.

Khalid said a list of names of 27 close relatives of Hasina and four personal staff has been given to the jail authorities so that they can meet Hasina as per the jail codes.

Hasina's nephews Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Sheikh Fazle Sun Parosh, Hasan Mahmud and Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury went to meet Hasina at about 1:45pm and waited there until 4:00pm when the DIG prisons told them that the authorities cannot allow them.

"As we talked to the DIG prisons for meeting with the leader [Hasina], he asked us to go back and that he will let us know later. We waited there for more than two hours and again contacted him. He said he was communicating with the high-ups over the matter. Finally, the DIG prisons told us that we cannot meet Hasina as the high-ups did not give the permission," Khalid told The Daily Star.

When contacted the DIG prisons said last evening, "We did not allow them to see her due to security reasons...They came to meet her without informing us."

He said they have not yet started the process of allowing relatives to meet Hasina but will start it soon. He, however, denied sending back food items, saying those were sent to the AL chief.

Contacted by The Daily Star last evening Advocate Sahara Khatun, law secretary to the AL, said they sent a letter to the home secretary yesterday seeking permission to meet Hasina. "But we did not get any permission," Sahara said.

Advocates Yousuf Hossain Humayun, Mahbube Alam, Quamrul Islam, Abdul Matin Khasru, Sahara Khatun and others have started examining the legal aspects of the charges brought against Hasina.

"We will try to contact the authorities tomorrow again to see if they have got permission," Sahara said.