Bangladesh’s first feminine prime minister, Khaleda Zia, died after a protracted sickness, her opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP) stated on Tuesday.
Khaleda, aged 80, had superior cirrhosis of the liver, arthritis, diabetes, chest and coronary heart issues, her docs stated.
“The BNP chairperson and former prime minister, the nationwide chief Begum Khaleda Zia, handed away at present at 6:00am (0000 GMT), simply after the Fajr prayer,” the occasion stated in an announcement.
“We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everybody to supply prayers for her departed soul,” it added.
Regardless of years of in poor health well being and imprisonment, Zia vowed in November to marketing campaign in elections set for February 2026 — the primary vote since a mass rebellion toppled her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina final yr.
Zia’s BNP is broadly seen as a frontrunner.
However in late November, she was rushed to the hospital, the place, regardless of the very best efforts of medics, her situation declined from a raft of well being points.
Throughout her last days, interim chief Muhammad Yunus known as for the nation to hope for Zia, calling her a “supply of utmost inspiration for the nation”.
BNP’s media chief Moudud Alamgir Pavel additionally confirmed Zia’s dying AFP.
Zia was jailed for corruption in 2018 underneath Hasina’s authorities, which additionally blocked her from touring overseas for medical remedy.
She was launched final yr, shortly after Hasina was pressured from energy.
There had been plans earlier this month to fly her on a particular air ambulance to London, however her situation was not steady sufficient.
Her son, political heavyweight Tarique Rahman, solely returned to Bangladesh after 17 years in self-imposed exile on Thursday, the place he was welcomed again by large crowds of joyful supporters.
Rahman will lead the occasion via the February 12 basic election, and is anticipated to be put ahead as prime minister if his occasion wins a majority.
‘Battling begums’
Identified by her first identify, Khaleda was described as shy and dedicated to elevating her two sons till her husband, navy chief and then-president Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in an tried military coup in 1981.
Three years later she grew to become the top of the BNP, which her husband had based, and vowed to ship on his purpose of “liberating Bangladesh from poverty and financial backwardness”.
She joined arms with Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father and head of the Awami League occasion, to guide a well-liked rebellion for democracy that toppled navy ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1990.
However their cooperation didn’t final lengthy. Their bitter rivalry would result in the 2 being dubbed “the battling begums”.
Supporters noticed her as well mannered and conventional but quietly trendy, somebody who selected her phrases fastidiously. However additionally they considered her as a daring, uncompromising chief when it got here to defending her occasion and confronting her rivals.
Hasina, against this, was much more outspoken and assertive. Their reverse personalities helped gas the rivalry that dominated Bangladesh’s politics for many years.
In 1991, Bangladesh held what was hailed as its first free election. Khaleda received a shock victory over Hasina, having gained the help of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
In doing so, Khaleda grew to become Bangladesh’s first feminine prime minister and solely the second girl to guide a democratic authorities of a primarily Muslim nation after Benazir Bhutto, who was elected three years earlier.
Khaleda changed the presidential system with a parliamentary one, in order that energy rested with the prime minister. She additionally lifted restrictions on international funding and made main training obligatory and free.
She misplaced to Hasina within the 1996 basic election however got here again 5 years later with a shock landslide win.
Her second time period was marred by the rise of militants and allegations of corruption.
In 2004, a rally that Hasina was addressing was hit by grenades. Hasina survived however over 20 individuals had been killed and greater than 500 wounded.
Khaleda’s authorities and its allies had been broadly blamed.
In 2018, after Hasina had reclaimed Bangladesh’s highest workplace, Rahman was tried in absentia and sentenced to life for the assault. The BNP denounced the trial as politically motivated.
Detention and freedom
Though Khaleda later clamped down on radical teams, her second stint as prime minister resulted in 2006 when an army-backed interim authorities took energy amid political instability and avenue violence.
The interim authorities jailed each Khaleda and Hasina on fees of corruption and abuse of energy for a few yr earlier than they had been each launched forward of a basic election in 2008.
Khaleda by no means regained energy.
With the BNP boycotting the 2014 and 2024 elections, her vitriolic feud with Hasina continued to dominate Bangladeshi politics.
Pressure between their two events typically led to strikes, violence and deaths, impeding the financial improvement of Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken nation of about 175 million that’s low-lying and susceptible to devastating floods.
In 2018, Khaleda, Rahman and aides had been convicted of stealing some $250,000 in international donations acquired by an orphanage belief arrange when she was the final prime minister — fees that she stated had been a part of a plot to maintain her and her household out of politics.
She was jailed however moved to accommodate arrest in March 2020 on humanitarian grounds as her well being deteriorated.
Khaleda was free of home arrest in August 2024 after Hasina’s ouster.
In early 2025, Khaleda and Rahman had been acquitted by Bangladesh’s Supreme Courtroom within the corruption case that resulted within the 2018 jail sentences. Rahman had been acquitted of the 2004 grenade assault on Hasina a month earlier.
