Bangladesh’s ailing leader Zia leaves for UK on 1st foreign trip since 2017
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s ailing leader of the Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, left Dhaka for the UK late Tuesday for advanced treatment on her first foreign visit since 2017, according to the party’s media wing.
Thousands of followers gathered on the route to the Dhaka airport causing hours-long traffic jams.
Zia, 79, will reach London through Doha on a special air ambulance sent by the emir of Qatar, said the media wing. Her son, Tarique Rahman, lives in the UK.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is expected to meet Zia during a stopover in Doha.
Zia was under house arrest since 2020 but was released after the fall of her political archival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose government ended Aug. 5 following a mass uprising led by students.
In 2018, Zia was put in jail after she was given a five-year jail sentence.
The transitional government in Dhaka said separately on Tuesday that it canceled the passports of 97 people, including Hasina, who lives in India, on charges of mass killing and forced disappearances.
“India knows that the passport (of Hasina) has been canceled. And, the Indian government has already issued travel documents for her,” government spokesman Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told reporters in Dhaka.
Hasina fled to India following the fall of her government. A transitional government was formed under Nobel laureate Yunus Muhammad.
Dhaka has sought extradition of Hasina but New Delhi has so far maintained silence about Bangladesh’s request.
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