The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said on Monday that BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia鈥檚 life was under threat.
He said this while talking to journalists at the party chairperson鈥檚 office in Gulshan after visiting Khaleda Zia at Evercare Hospital around noon.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was taken to Evercare Hospital in Dhaka after she fell ill early Monday at her Gulshan house.
She is now receiving treatment at a cabin under the close supervision of doctors, according to the BNP media cell.
鈥楽he [Khaleda] suddenly fell ill in the morning. She has many ailments, which we have repeatedly highlighted to the nation, but the government did not care,鈥� Fakhrul said.
He said that physicians kept Khaleda under their observation for 24 hours.
Mentioning that Khaleda鈥檚 life is in danger, he said, 鈥榃e think they [the government] are doing it intentionally.鈥�
Fakhrul said, 鈥楴ow it has become a national demand that the BNP chairperson be released unconditionally. The injustice being done to her is motivated by political vendetta to keep her detained and push her towards death.鈥�
鈥榃e have repeatedly said that she needs to be treated in a multi-disciplinary treatment centre abroad, but, unfortunately, they [the government] are not releasing her out of revenge,鈥� he said.
鈥榃e are demonstrating for her unconditional release. There will be more movements in the future. We will try to take the movement forward,鈥� said Fakhrul, terming the government 鈥榠nhumane鈥� as it was not giving importance to the illness of Khaleda.
鈥楨ven those who came to give treatment to her from outside also suggested that she needed surgery that could be performed only outside the country.
鈥業鈥檓 not a doctor, but I understand that if she is released quickly, we can look at the health issue so that she can go there and get treatment,鈥� Fakhrul said.
On July 2, Khaleda Zia returned to her Gulshan residence following 10 days of treatment at the Evercare Hospitals in the city.
Khaleda, 79, has been suffering from various ailments, including three blockages in the heart.聽
As her health condition deteriorated in the early hours of June 22, she was rushed to Evercare Hospital.
A pacemaker was fitted in Khaleda鈥檚 heart at the hospital on June 23. The former prime minister is also suffering from arthritis, liver, and lung complications, while she has high diabetes.
Since her conditional release from prison in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving medical care at the hospital under the supervision of a medical board headed by cardiologist Professor Shahabuddin Talukder.
Khaleda鈥檚 doctors have been advising sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.
On October 26, last year, three US specialist doctors completed a hepatic procedure to stop water accumulation in her stomach and chest and bleeding in her liver.
Khaleda was sent to the 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 in the same year, she was found guilty in another corruption case.
Amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she would stay in her Gulshan house and would not leave the country.
