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Dhaka: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)chief, Khaleda Zia died in Dhaka after a prolonged illness. She was 80 years old. In a brief statement, the party confirmed her death on Tuesday morning.
She had been undergoing treatment at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital since November 23. The former prime minister remained in an extremely critical condition for weeks and was in the intensive care unit for the last few days.
Confirming her death, BNP wrote on social media, “Our beloved national leader Begum Khaleda Zia is no longer with us. She left us today at 6 a.m. Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return.”
Khaleda Zia served as Bangladesh Prime Minister twice, first between 1991 and 1996 and then again between 2001 and 2006. Wife of former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman, she was also the second Prime Minister in the Muslim world after Benazir Bhutto. After husband’s assassination in 1981, became active in politics. Khaleda Zia also led the party in various elections.
His elder son, Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the BNP, returned to Bangladesh from London this month. Her younger son, Arafat Rahman, died of a heart attack in 2015.
In February 2018, a Dhaka Special Court sentenced her to five years in prison for embezzling government funds in the name of the Zia Orphanage Trust. Tarique and five other accused were also sentenced to 10 years' jail.
The accused were also fined 21 million Bangladeshi taka. Tariq and two other accused fled the country after that. Even as Khaleda Zia appealed this decision in the High Court, the sentence to 10 years after the case. She then applied for leave to appeal against the sentence. This appeal was delayed for five years due to legalities.
She was subsequently released on August 6, 2024, a day after then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's coup. She then went to London for better treatment, she returned to the country after four months.
