Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia 'extremely unwell', put on ventilation: party leaders
Dhaka (PTI): Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia is "extremely unwell" and she has been placed on ventilation, with both local and international medical specialists overseeing her treatment, her party leaders said on Monday.
Zia, the 80-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, was admitted to a private hospital on November 23 when she developed a chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs.
Four days later, the three-time prime minister was shifted to the coronary care unit after several of her health complications worsened.
Her condition has deteriorated, and she was put on ventilation, BNP Vice-Chairman Advocate Ahmed Aazam Khan was quoted as saying by news portal tbsnews.net.
"She is in a very critical condition. There is nothing more to do except seek prayers from the whole nation," he told reporters outside Evercare Hospital here.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also confirmed that Zia remains in a critical condition as she continues to receive treatment at the hospital in Dhaka, with both local and international medical specialists involved in her care.
"She is extremely unwell. The entire nation is praying for her recovery... She is seriously ill, and our doctors are making every possible effort. Local and foreign specialists are involved in her treatment. They are trying their best," he was quoted as saying by the news website.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Sunday said Zia's physical condition remained unchanged.
Zia, the wife of slain Bangladesh president Ziaur Rahman, has been suffering from multiple other health complications, including liver and kidney issues, diabetes, arthritis, and eye-related illnesses.
Earlier in the year, Zia returned to the country from London on May 6 after spending four months for advanced medical treatment.
Her only son and BNP's acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, has been living in London since 2008. Her other son, Arafat Rahman, died of a cardiac arrest in 2025.
BNP has re-emerged as the frontrunner in Bangladesh's changed political landscape after a student-led violent street protest toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
