Bangladesh ex-PM makes first public appearance in six years
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Former Bangladeshi PM Khaleda Zia (second from left) seen with chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka in a photo released on Nov 21.
PHOTO: AFP
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DHAKA – Bangladesh’s illness-plagued opposition leader Khaleda Zia made her first public appearance in six years on Nov 21, months after her release from house arrest following the ouster of her long-time foe, the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina
The ferocious rivalry between the two former premiers – born in blood and cemented in prison – has defined politics in the Muslim-majority nation for decades.
Ms Zia was jailed in 2018 for graft but was released in August, hours after Ms Hasina fled to neighbouring India
Ms Zia’s presence on Nov 21 at a reception to mark the country’s Armed Forces Day marked her first public appearance since her conviction.
She was welcomed by Mr Muhummad Yunus, a Nobel laureate helming an interim Bangladeshi government charged with restoring the country’s democracy, with the pair photographed sitting together and chatting amiably.
“We are particularly lucky and honoured today that Begum Khaleda Zia... has graced us with her presence,” Mr Yunus said. “We are all delighted that she joined us today.”
Ms Zia, 79, who has been in declining health for years, uses a wheelchair due to having rheumatoid arthritis. She also suffers from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.
Until Nov 21, she had kept out of the spotlight despite her release, apart from briefly addressing a political rally in a video message from a hospital bed.
Ms Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party said that more than two dozen of its leaders were also in attendance.
Party secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir lost his composure and broke into tears when he saw Ms Zia at the event, newspaper Prothom Alo reported.
Ms Zia spent most of her sentence under house arrest after she was relocated from prison during the coronavirus pandemic, but she was denied repeated requests to travel abroad for medical treatment.
Mr Alamgir told a Nov 20 rally in the city of Feni that Ms Zia was “very ill, having been kept in jail on false charges in a small, damp cell”.
The Bangladeshi media outlets reported in October that Ms Zia was expected to travel abroad for medical care in the near future, without giving a precise date. AFP
