Armed forces day: Khaleda to attend event today, first time in 12yrs

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is set to make her first public appearance in six years today at a programme in Dhaka Cantonment to commemorate Armed Forces Day.

"The BNP chairperson will go to Senakunja tomorrow [today] to participate in a function on the occasion of Armed Forces Day," said Shairul Kabir Khan, a member of BNP's media wing, quoting ABM Abdus Sattar, personal secretary to the party chief.

The 79-year-old former prime minister has not been seen in public since her imprisonment in February 2018 in a corruption case.

This marks her first participation in the Armed Forces Day event since 2012.

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The Armed Forces Division on Tuesday invited Khaleda to the ceremony, where Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus will be the chief guest.

Armed Forces Day is celebrated to mark the establishment of the forces during the Liberation War in 1971.

The day's programmes will begin with offering of special prayers after Fazr prayers at all mosques in all cantonments and naval and air force bases, seeking divine blessings for the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation and progress of the armed forces, according to an ISPR press release.

Khaleda has been suffering for years from different ailments, including liver cirrhosis, heart, lung, kidney and eye diseases.

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She received treatment at the capital's Evercare Hospital under the supervision of a medical board.

The BNP chief was sent behind bars on February 8, 2018, after a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

On October 30 that year, the High Court increased her jail term to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the previous Awami League government on March 25, 2020, temporarily freed Khaleda through an executive order. Her sentence was suspended on the conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan home and not leave the country.

The BNP chief was completely freed on August 6 this year after President Mohammed Shahabuddin exempted her from her punishment under the presidential power stated in Article 49 of the constitution.