[🇧🇩] Monitoring Khaleda Zia's political and health issues

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Khaleda Zia to attend public rally after 7 yrs

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will attend a rally of the Jatiotabadi Muktijoddha Dal as the chief guest on 21 December. With this, she’s going to join a political programme for the first time in seven years.

en.prothomalo.com

Khaleda Zia to attend public rally after 7 yrs
Special Correspondent
Dhaka
Updated: 15 Dec 2024, 16: 19

BNP chairperson Khaleda ZiaFile photo

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia will attend a rally of the Jatiotabadi Muktijoddha Dal as the chief guest on 21 December. With this, she’s going to join a political programme for the first time in seven years.

Jatiotabadi Muktijoddha Dal president Istiaq Aziz Ulfat told Prothom Alo today, Sunday, that he along with BNP standing committee member Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed met with party chairperson Khaleda Zia Saturday night.

He said that they invited the BNP chairperson to attend the rally of the Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal as the chief guest.

Istiaq Aziz Ulfat mentioned that former prime minister Khaleda Zia has accepted their invitation and promised to attend the rally in person. Acting chairperson of BNP, Tarique Rahman will also join the rally virtually from London.

The rally is being organised at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city at 2:00 pm on 21 December.

BNP along with its associated and affiliated organisations is holding different programmes on the occasion of the victory day. The Jatiotabadi Muktijoddha Dal is organising that rally as part of the programmes.

Ishtiaq Aziz Ulfat further stated that the freedom fighters will be coming to Dhaka from all over the country and join the rally on 21 December.

The last time BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia had addressed a rally of her party was on 12 November 2017 at the Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka. Later, she was arrested on 8 February 2018.

Khaleda Zia was sentenced to imprisonment in two cases of corruption under the rule of the then government of Bangladesh Awami League. She was in prison for more than two years.

Then on 25 March 2020, the government suspended her sentence to free her on conditions through an executive order. Since then the government had been extending the suspension on her sentence every six months based on appeals.

After ruling for 15 and a half years at a stretch, the AL government fell in the face of a mass uprising led by students on 5 August. Khaleda Zia was freed with a presidential order the very next day on 6 August.

Regarding her release, a press release sent from the Bangabhaban, the official residence of the president, stated that Khaleda Zia has been freed following a meeting of President Mohammed Shahabuddin with chiefs of three services, leaders of different political parties, representatives of civil society and leaders of Students Against Discrimination movement.

Khaleda Zia then attended a reception at Senakunja on the occasion of the Armed Forces day on 21 November after more than a decade. Now after seven years, she’s going to attend a political programme, a rally organised by the Jatiotabadi Muktijoddha Dal on 21 December.

Speaking about this, BNP chairperson’s media wing official Shamsuddin Didar told Prothom Alo, “With the rally of freedom fighters, Khaleda Zia is joining a public rally or a political programme in a free environment after seven long years.”​

 

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Khaleda going to UK early January

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to travel to London in the first half of January for advanced treatment.

www.newagebd.net

Khaleda going to UK early January
Staff Correspondent 25 December, 2024, 17:40

UNB file photo

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to travel to London in the first half of January for advanced treatment.

‘Preparations are underway to take her to the United Kingdom in the first half of January, if she remains fit for the air journey,’ said her personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain.

However, any specific date for the travel is yet to be set, said Zahid, also a standing committee member of the BNP.

BNP leaders said that Khaleda Zia would first go to London in the UK, where her eldest son and the party acting chairperson, Tarique Rahman, along with his family has been living since 2008.

After staying there for a few days, she will travel to the United States for treatment of her liver complications, they said.

They also said that all preparations had been made for the BNP chairperson’s treatment at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in East Baltimore, Maryland in the US.

She has already obtained visas for the UK and the US, they said.

A 15-member delegation which includes Khaled’s late son Arafat Rahman’s wife Syeda Sharmila Rahman, some physicians and BNP leaders, her personal secretary and two housemaids will accompany her during her London trip.

Khaleda’s office has already informed the foreign affairs ministry about her treatment abroad, including details of her entourage members.

Earlier, in October 2023, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure, known as the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, to stop water accretion in Khaleda’s stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.

Her doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

The 79-year-old former prime minister is suffering from various complications, including liver cirrhosis, heart disease, lung disease, arthritis, kidney disease and diabetes.

She had to undergo long-term treatment through a medical board coordinated by specialist doctors, including being kept in the ICU at various times at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.

Khaleda Zia was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special judge court sentenced her to five years in imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

But in October of that year, the sentence was increased to 10 years after an appeal hearing in the High Court.

Later, the BNP chief was also sentenced to another seven years in jail in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the Covid outbreak, the then government temporarily freed Khaleda from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020 on conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

On March 25 of that year, Khaleda returned to her Gulshan house after being temporarily released.

Since then, Sheikh Hasina’s government which was ousted on August 5 amid a mass uprising had been extending her release every six months at the request of her family.

After her temporary release, she had to be hospitalised with critical condition for several times for treatment.

Although, Khaleda’s family had applied several times to send her abroad, Sheikh Hasina’s government had repeatedly rejected it.

A day after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, Khaleda was completely freed by an order issued by president Mohammed Shahabuddin.

The BNP chief returned to her Gulshan residence on August 21 after undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital for a month.

Khaleda Zia was also suddenly admitted to Evercare Hospital on the night of September 12. Later, she returned home after six days of treatment.​