BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has asked the party leaders and activists to continue movement for “restoration of democracy”, its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said today after visiting her at Old Central Jail in Dhaka.

Fakhrul also said, “Khaleda’s health condition has deteriorated and we are very anxious. Her left hand is becoming stiff and gaining weight. She is experiencing pain from her left leg to the whole left side.”

Fakhrul along with the party's standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Nazrul Islam Khan entered the jail on Nazimuddin Road around 3:50 pm and came out of the jail around 5:00 pm.

Talking to reporters, Fakhrul also said Khaleda has sought blessings from the countrymen for her immediate recovery and the end of the hard time the country and the nation is going through.

She urged the party leaders and activists to continue the movement for the restoration of democracy with bravery, the BNP leader said.

“She is having difficulty in her natural movement. Her old complication of arthritis is turning into neurological problems. It might lead to paralysis. Her right eye has turned reddish if it persists her eye might be damaged,” Fakhrul said after observing Khaleda Zia.

Fakhrul urged the government, “We are still calling upon you (government) to take her to United Hospital as per her (Khaleda) wish, and administer the treatment the way she needs. It’s your (government) responsibility.”

“If there is any aberration of this and her health is further damaged, the government will have to take the responsibility,” Fakhrul said.

He alleged that the medicines provided by the doctors of the medical board are not functioning. “What she requires is that the change of the environment, any sound person will fall sick in this environment (in the prison), but no sick person can be sound here,” he said.  

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia landed in jail on February 8 after a special court sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the much-talked-about Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.