BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said their party Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been fighting for her life at Evercare Hospital in the capital where she underwent medical tests after falling sick seriously.
“Our leader (Khaleda) has become ill again. She is so sick that she had to be taken to the hospital at 3 am. She’s now fighting with death for life,” he said.
Speaking at a road march programme arranged by Dhaka South City unit BNP in the city’s Gopibagh area, Fakhrul said the government has jailed the former prime minister in 'false' cases to keep her away from politics as it knows they would not be able to defeat BNP in any election if she remains free.
He said Awami League also knows very well that they will not even get 10 seats in a free and fair election.
The BNP leader called upon the party rank and file to get united and unite the country’s people, all democratic parties and organisations to free Khaleda Zia and give a reply to all the injustices committed against her by the present government.
The BNP chief was admitted to Evercare Hospital early Tuesday after she fell sick suddenly.
She underwent various medical examinations under the close supervision of her medical board at the hospital in the city's Bashundhara area on Tuesday.
Her personal physician Professor AZM Zahid Hossain said, “Madam's treatment is going on under the supervision of her medical board led by Professor Shahabuddin Talukder.”
Another doctor of Khaleda, wishing anonymity, said the BNP chief underwent some medical tests in the morning as per the advice of the medical board. “The medical board will review the test reports and determine her next course of treatment.
Khaleda, 78, has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart and eye problems. Since her conditional release in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.
On June 10 last year, the BNP chief suffered a heart attack due to a 95 per cent block in her left artery and a stent was placed there by removing the blockage at the same hospital the following day.
Doctors also found two more blocks in her blood vessels, but they could not remove those due to her health complications.
Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty 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 conditions that she will stay in her Gulshan house and will not leave the country.
