Khaleda may get paralysed anytime

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir fears that party Chairperson Khaleda Zia, now in jail, might get paralysed anytime.

He also categorically said Khaleda will not take treatment at Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

On the other hand, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader claimed that the BNP had no headache regarding Khaleda's treatment and that the party wanted to make an issue over it.

Addressing a press conference at the BNP headquarters in the capital's Nayapaltan on Sunday, Fakhrul said, “We came to know from the family members who met Khaleda Zia in jail on Eid day that her physical condition has worsened.

“She can't walk on her own. In such a situation, we are urging the government to take her to United Hospital for better treatment,” he said.

On June 9, Khaleda's personal physicians met her at the Old Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road and said she may have suffered a mild stroke on June 5.

Later, some BNP leaders urged the government to take Khaleda to United Hospital.  On June 12, the BNP chief's younger brother Shamim Iskander wrote a letter to the home ministry. In the letter, he said his family would bear all the medical expenses if Khaleda was admitted to the hospital.

The government first offered to take Khaleda to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and then to CMH.

The BNP rejected the offer and insisted that Khaleda be admitted to United Hospital instead.

At another press conference yesterday, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged that the government was not allowing Khaleda to be taken to the private hospital as part of “an evil design”.

While talking to reporters during a visit to Comilla-Noakhali road in Paduar Bazar on Sunday, AL leader Obaidul Quader, however, said, “BNP leaders are saying many things to make it an issue for launching a movement”.

Khaleda was offered treatment at BSMMU and CMH but she did not agree to that, UNB reported him as saying.

Talking to reporters at his office at the Secretariat yesterday, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed also said the BNP chief rejected the government's request of taking her to hospital.

“A person cannot waste time in choosing hospital if that individual is indeed ill,” UNB quoted him as saying.

Taking a dig at the BNP, the minister also questioned its demand for deploying the army during the upcoming general elections.

On Eid day on Saturday, Khaleda spent around two hours with her relatives and ate the food they brought from home.

Though her party leaders were barred from meeting her, 20 relatives of the BNP chief with some cooked food, new clothes, and flowers entered the Old Dhaka Central Jail around 2:15pm.

Jail sources said Khaleda usually eats her lunch by 1:30pm but on that day she waited for her relatives, UNB reported.

Wishing anonymity, one of the relatives who met Khaleda said the family members became emotional as they met her on the Eid day in jail.

However, Khaleda was strong and she asked everyone to have patience and to pray for her.

Jail sources said they offered Khaleda vermicelli cooked with milk, some sweetmeats and Jarda rice, but she did not take the food.

The BNP chief took the first meal of the day with food brought by her relatives.

A huge number of law enforcers remained deployed in and around the jail since that morning as BNP leaders had announced that they would go to the jail.

On February 8, Khaleda was sent to jail after a special court sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.