Khaleda Zia, chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a former prime minister, passed away on Tuesday morning while receiving treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka. She was 80.
According to BNP leaders, Khaleda Zia died at around 6:30 a.m. at Evercare Hospital in the capital. Her elder son and BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, along with other family members, were present at the time of her death. BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed confirmed the news, quoting Tarique Rahman as saying, “Mother is no more.”
Party sources said funeral prayers (janaza) are likely to be held on Wednesday at Manik Mia Avenue, though final arrangements are yet to be formally announced.
Khaleda Zia was one of the most prominent and controversial figures in Bangladesh’s political history. She served as prime minister three times—in 1991, 1996, and from 2001 to 2006—and led the BNP for more than four decades. Her leadership played a central role in the mass movement against military ruler H. M. Ershad and the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991. She was widely known among supporters as the “uncompromising leader.”
Her political career began after the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in 1981. Over the years, her rivalry with Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina came to define Bangladesh’s political landscape. While supporters credit her with electoral legitimacy and party consolidation, critics point to corruption allegations and governance failures during her later administrations.
In recent years, Khaleda Zia had been in poor health. She was imprisoned in 2018 following her conviction in the Zia Orphanage Trust case and released in 2020 on humanitarian grounds under conditions restricting her political activities. She had undergone treatment abroad earlier this year before being hospitalized again in Dhaka in late November.
With her death, a defining chapter of Bangladesh’s post-independence political history comes to an end.
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