Khaleda Zia celebrates Eid with family in London after 8yrs

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia (center) with her eldest son and party’s acting Chairman Tarique Rahman (left), her daughter-in-law Dr. Zubaida Rahman, and granddaughter Barrister Zaima Rahman (right) in London. Photo: BNP Media Cell

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is doing well now and she is celebrating Eid with her family in London after eight years, party’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said today (30 March).

“Alhamdulillah, she [Begum Khaleda Zia] is better now in London,” the BNP leader told reporters at the Chairperson’s Gulshan office.

Fakhrul said Begum Zia will probably return home in mid-April.

On 8 January, the BNP chairperson was taken to London for advanced treatment.

Mirza Fakhrul said the BNP chief suffered liver cirrhosis while she was in prison as she did not receive any treatment there.

“We believe that she was put on slow poisoning in prison. If you ask madam, she will not tell you this. Because she is not that kind of person. The room where madam was kept was damp, all the walls were crumbling and rats were running around; our Madam faced such a situation,” he added.

BNP chairperson’s personal physician Prof AZM Zahid Hossain told the media that Begum Zia is at the house of her eldest son, BNP acting chairperson Tarique Rahman where her two daughters-in-law Dr Zubaida Rahman and Syeda Shamila Rahman, three granddaughters Barrister Zaima Rahman, Zafia Rahman and Zahia Rahman are also there.

They have made all the Eid arrangements, he added.

This is Khaleda Zia’s third Eid celebration in London.

This is the first time in ten years that she is celebrating Eid at her son Tarique Rahman’s house.

Earlier in 2017, she had gone to London for treatment and celebrated Eid-ul-Azha at her son’s house. Even before that, she celebrated Eid with her family members in London in September 2015.

When asked how Khaleda Zia was doing, Professor Zahid said, “She is much better than before at the moment.”

Dr Zahid said, “Madam extended Eid greetings to the countrymen and party leaders and workers. The acting chairman of the party, Tarique Rahman also extended Eid greetings to the countrymen through you (journalists).”

On 8 January, former prime minister Begum Zia went to London for treatment in a royal air ambulance sent by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

She was admitted to ‘The London Clinic’ under the care of Professor John Patrick Kennedy for 17 days.

After that, the medical board formed for her at the London clinic decided that Khaleda Zia would be under the care of Professor Patrick Kennedy and Professor Jennifer Cross at her son Tarique Rahman’s house.

The 79-year-old former prime minister has been suffering from various physical ailments for long.

In 2018, the BNP Chairperson was arrested in a corruption case and imprisoned in the old Dhaka Central Jail. The government granted her special release during the Corona period. She spent four Eids in prison and Bangladesh Medical University Hospital.

After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in the student-people uprising on 5 August, Khaleda Zia was released on an order by the president. The court then overturned the verdicts in the two corruption cases in which she was imprisoned.