DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities on Saturday cut the power to opposition leader Khaleda Zia's home in an apparent bid to force her to call off a crippling anti-government transport blockade.

Local television showed footage of a technician from a state-run power utility climbing a ladder and cutting the line outside Zia's house, where she also has her office and where she has been holed up since the protests began early in January.

“We got permission from police to cut the power line,” the technician told reporters as he cut the line.

Private Channel 24 television said that Internet and satellite television connections to her office were also severed.

There was no official comment from police or the power utility.

Shamsuddin Dider, a spokesman for Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), told AFP that the 69-year-old leader was “shocked and surprised” by the “loathsome” move.

The power line was cut just hours after a government minister reportedly threatened to sever the connection and force her to starve to death if she did not call off the nationwide transport blockade.