BNP set to wage movement demanding Khaleda Zia’s release

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has decided to wage a movement on demand for the release of the party chairperson Khaleda Zia.

The programmes regarding the movement are likely to be announced Wednesday, said the de facto opposition party’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He was addressing a media conference at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital Tuesday.

BNP’s standing committee held a meeting on Monday. The decision of the movement was taken from there.

The committee also expressed worries about the decline in health of the three-time prime minister, Khaleda Zia, Mirza Fakhrul told the media.

He said the condition of Khaleda Zia was “stable” since the installation of a “pacemaker” in her heart.

“As far as I Know, she was stable as of this morning,” the BNP secretary general said when a newsperson asked him about the latest condition of Khaleda Zia.

A “pacemaker” was fitted in the heart of Khaleda Zia at Evercare Hospital Sunday afternoon. Later, she was shifted to a cabin with CCU (coronary care unit) facilities.

79-year-old Khaleda Zia is suffering from arthritis, and ailments of the heart, liver and lungs and also has diabetes.

When her health condition deteriorated in the early hours of Saturday, at around 3:30 am, she was rushed to Evercare Hospital.

Earlier she was admitted to Evercare Hospital on 2 May. The physicians there treated at the CCU for two days.

The BNP secretary general alleged that only because of political vengeance Khaleda Zia has been kept confined, which is completely illegal and unconstitutional. The illegal government has been depriving the “Deshnetri” to kill her in a bid to secure their throne, he added.

The BNP secretary general claimed that Khaleda Zia is deprived of better treatment because of the prime minister.

“I’m recounting my experience. All the preparations to take her (Khaleda Zia) abroad was almost done, her family applied for this. Finally, when this was sent to the prime minister, she rejected that,” he stated.

“Not only this, we sent letters to different (foreign) missions too. They tried time and again but came back. They said, ‘sorry brother, she did not listen to us’,” Mirza Fakhrul added.

Raising a question on the motive behind this, Mirza Fakhrul said, the motive is to keep her away from politics. She was sentenced in a trumped up case just before the 2018 elections and imprisoned. Since then the attempt is on so that she does not get released in any way.