Shawdesh Desk :

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party will hold a rally in front of the party’s Naya Paltan central office at 3:00pm on Saturday, demanding the unconditional release of its chairperson, Khaleda Zia.

BNP senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said on Friday at a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan office that they had completed all kinds of preparations to hold the rally.

Rizvi said that Dhaka Metropolitan Police assured to cooperate with the party in holding the rally in front of their party office.

‘We sent a letter to the police commissioner’s office regarding our rally, and a delegation of BNP also held a meeting on Thursday with the officials of police, and they assured us to cooperate,› Rizvi said.

BNP will also hold rallies in all metropolitan cities on July 1 and in all district headquarters on July 3, demanding the release of the BNP chief.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday announced a three-day countrywide programme demanding the unconditional release of Khaleda Zia, who is currently undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in the capital.

Khaleda Zia was rushed to Evercare Hospital on June 22 after she suddenly fell ill at her Gulshan residence.

A team of specialist doctors, led by Professor Shahabuddin Talukder, successfully implanted a pacemaker in her chest the following day. She is now receiving treatment in a cabin with CCU facilities at the hospital.

On June 11, 2022, Khaleda Zia was diagnosed with three blockages in the heart, one of which blocked 95 per cent of the vessel, and was treated with stent placement at that time.

Khaleda, a former prime minister, aged 79, has long been battling with various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lungs, heart, and eyes.

Since her conditional release from jail in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment frequently at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Professor Shahabuddin Talukder.

Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Jail after a lower court sentenced her to five years imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was convicted in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country. That has since been extended multiple times to keep her out of jail.

Khaleda’s physicians had been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

On October 26, 2023, three US specialist doctors completed a hepatic procedure to stop water accretion in Khaleda Zia’s stomach and chest and bleeding in her liver.