Bangladesh’s ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left the nation’s capital for London on Tuesday for medical therapy, mentioned considered one of her advisers.
Zahiruddin Swapan, an adviser to Zia, informed The Related Press by cellphone that the three-time former premier and head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration left Hazrat Shahjalal Worldwide Airport late Tuesday on an air ambulance.
“Our senior leaders left the airport seeing her off,” Swapan mentioned.
Her illnesses embody liver cirrhosis, cardiac illness and kidney issues, in accordance with her doctor.
Zia left behind a South Asian nation grappling with uncertainty over its political future after her arch rival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led mass rebellion in August. Zia and Hasina are essentially the most influential political leaders in Bangladesh.
An interim authorities headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is working the nation and plans to carry elections in December this 12 months or within the first half of 2026.
Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail beneath Hasina’s rule following two corruption instances stemming from 2001-2006 when she was prime minister. Her supporters say the fees in opposition to her have been politically motivated, an allegation Hasina’s administration denied. Beneath Yunus, Zia was acquitted in one of many instances in November and an attraction within the second case was being heard on Tuesday.
Zia, 79, was free of jail on bail beneath Hasina by means of a authorities order and had been present process medical therapy in Bangladesh. However Hasina’s administration didn’t enable her to journey overseas for therapy regardless of requests in search of approval.
The particular air ambulance was despatched by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. A whole lot of her supporters gathered outdoors her residence within the metropolis’s upscale Gulshan space to see her off.
Zia’s motorcade took almost three hours to cross a couple of 10-km stretch of highway to get to the airport from her residence in Dhaka’s Gulshan space as hundreds of her determined supporters greeted her on the way in which, creating visitors chaos. Her hours-long journey to the airport was broadcast dwell by tv stations.
Enamul Haque Chowdhury, a detailed aide of Zia, informed reporters that the air ambulance had arrived from Doha to take her to London, the place her eldest son and inheritor obvious Tarique Rahman has been in exile since 2007. Rahman is the appearing chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration and is predicted to steer the celebration towards the election. The nation’s dynastic politics have lengthy targeted on the households of Hasina and Zia.
Zia is the spouse of late President Ziaur Rahman, a former navy chief who rose to prominence throughout years of tumultuous politics after Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nation’s independence chief, was assassinated together with most of his members of the family in a navy coup in 1975. Zia’s husband was additionally killed in 1981 in one other navy coup after he shaped his political celebration and dominated the nation as president for 3 years. Hasina’s father led Bangladesh’s independence warfare in opposition to Pakistan, aided by India, in 1971.
Zia’s private doctor, A Z M Zahid Hossain, mentioned Qatar’s emir organized the particular plane with medical services for the previous prime minister, whose illnesses embody liver cirrhosis, cardiac illness and kidney issues.
Her departure follows dramatic political developments since final August, when Hasina’s 15-year rule ended. Hasina fled into exile in India as she and her shut aides confronted prices of killing lots of of protesters throughout a mass protest motion that started in July.
Zia’s departure might create a symbolic vacuum within the nation’s politics amid efforts by a scholar group that led the anti-Hasina protest to type a brand new political celebration. Within the absence of Hasina and her secular Bangladesh Awami League celebration, the rise of Islamist political events and different Islamist teams has been seen within the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million individuals.
Zia’s celebration has been bargaining with the Yunus-led authorities for an election someday this 12 months. Yunus mentioned his authorities needs to make some main reforms earlier than the election.
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