Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. The 80-year-old BNP chief was undergoing treatment at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital.
“The BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, passed away today at 6:00 a.m., shortly after the Fajr prayer. We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,” the post on official X handle of BNP read.
Zia’s personal doctor on Saturday said that her condition was “extremely critical” as she remained on ventilator support.
BNP leaders said Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, who is also the party’s acting chairperson, visited the hospital on Saturday and stayed for more than two hours.
Who was Khaleda Zia?
Khaleda Zia was one of the most influential figures in Bangladesh’s political history. The widow of assassinated president Zia-ur Rahman, she served as the country’s Prime Minister for two terms, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. Born on August 15, 1945 in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, she became Bangladesh’s first elected female head of government and led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for decades.
Khaleda Zia had two sons. Her elder son, Tarique Rahman, is currently the acting chairperson of the BNP and recently returned to Bangladesh after 17 years in exile. Her younger son, Arafat Rahman, died of cardiac arrest in 2015.
For much of her career, Khaleda Zia was locked in a fierce political rivalry with Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League. In 2018, Zia was sentenced to 17 years in prison after being convicted in corruption cases linked to the Zia Orphanage Trust and the Zia Charitable Trust. She and the BNP consistently rejected the verdicts, claiming the cases were politically motivated.
Following the removal of Sheikh Hasina from power in August 2024, a presidential order led to Khaleda Zia’s release from house arrest.
After student-led protests triggered the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, the BNP re-emerged as a leading force in Bangladesh’s reshaped political landscape.
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