The suspect, who gave his name as Jahangir, son of Sobhan Khan of Pathalia in Chandpur, said he was looking for a leader of the main opposition Awami League (AL) of which Hasina is the president.

Jahangir could not say whether the AL leader from his area, Shamsul Huq Bhuiyan, was in Dhaka.

Dhanmondi police said Jahangir, who claimed to have done his master's from Kabi Nazrul Islam College in Dhaka, was probably a mentally imbalanced man.

They said he answered them inconstantly during preliminary interrogation and a prescription for drugs relating to mental illness was found in his pocket.

Jahangir said he was looking for a job in Dhaka staying at a relative's house in Khilgaon after arrival in the capital a week ago.

He said police picked him from a lakeside restaurant near Sudha Sadan in a claim that police denied instantly, saying they caught him for suspicious movement in front of Hasina's house.

A series of grenade attacks on an AL rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21 killed 19 people, including Women's Affairs Secretary of the party Ivy Rahman, and injured over 200 others.

Hasina survived the attack with grievous inner ear injury.