After about eight years of confinement and illness, BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia made a surprise midnight visit on Wednesday to the grave of late president Ziaur Rahman, her husband and the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Around 11pm, Khaleda Zia left her Gulshan residence and travelled quietly to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. Upon arrival, her car stopped in front of the grave and the 79-year-old former prime minister offered prayers (munajat) in silence, sitting inside.
With her in the car were her two sisters-in-laws — Nasrin Ahmed, wife of late Saeed Eskander, and Kanz Fatema, wife of late Shamim Eskander.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee member Professor AZM Zahid Hossain, her private secretary ABM Abdus Sattar, and several security officials stood in a row before the grave and joined the prayer.
Professor Zahid Hossain later said Khaleda suddenly expressed her desire to visit the grave late at night, prompting quick coordination with law enforcement agencies.
Khaleda Zia had last visited the mazar in early 2018, just days before her imprisonment. That year on 8 February, following a verdict by the Dhaka Metropolitan Special Judge’s Court in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, she was taken to the Dhaka Central Jail. BNP denounced the charges as politically motivated by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.
During her imprisonment and subsequent trials, Khaleda’s health deteriorated sharply. She was later moved to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and, in March 2020, released on an executive order on humanitarian grounds, but confined to her home.
Even after the fall of Hasina’s government in a mass uprising in August 2024, when she was formally freed, Khaleda chose to remain within her residence due to frail health, leaving only for treatment at Evercare Hospital.
Her midnight appearance, first in years outside her home or hospital, was described by BNP leaders as “emotional and symbolic.” For many party supporters, the visit to Ziaur Rahman’s grave marks a quiet reemergence of the long-silent leader who once dominated Bangladesh’s political stage.
