Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia will return home on Tuesday morning.
“BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:30 am on Tuesday . . . she will depart from London for Dhaka by a special air ambulance sent by Qatar Emir,” BNP media cell member Shairul Kabir Khan told yesterday.
Khan surfaced the information after consulting BNP chairperson’s personal physician and also BNP Standing Committee Member Dr. AZM Zahid Hossain and BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Earlier, on Saturday evening, the BNP secretary general told the media that Khaleda Zia would return to Dhaka from London by a special air ambulance sent by the Qatar Emir.
The former prime minister is being accompanied with her two daughters-in-law Dr Zubaida Rahman and Sharmila Rahman.
Apart from this, Khaleda Zia’s personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain, her adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury, APS Masudur Rahman and two domestic helps Fatima Begum and Rupa Haque are also accompanying her, Khan said.
Meanwhile, the news of Khaleda Zia’s return to the country has brought excitement among the party leaders and activists.
BNP and its affiliated organizations have already taken extensive preparations to welcome the party chairperson. The party’s decision makers and key leaders’ already held a series of meetings in the past few days.
Yesterday evening, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir held a joint meeting with the top leaders of the BNP’s Dhaka city and other affiliated organizations.
“We have received assurances that BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia will return to the country by a special air ambulance provided by the Emir of Qatar,” he told media earlier.
In 2018, Khaleda Zia was arrested in a graft case and imprisoned in the Old Dhaka Central Jail. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she was released and confined in her home on conditions.
After the historic political changeover on August 5 last year due to mass uprising, President Mohammed Shahabuddin released Khaleda Zia by an order. Then, the court quashed the verdicts of the two corrup-tion cases in which she was imprisoned.
On January 8 this year, Khaleda Zia was taken to London for advanced treatment. After her treatment for 17 consecutive days at the London clinic, she was taken to the house of her son Tarique Rahman on January 25.
After more than a half decade, Khaleda Zia celebrated Eid with her family members.
