News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia on Thursday attended the Armed Forces Day reception programme at Senakunja after 12 years.
Chief adviser to the interim government Muhammad Yunus exchanged greetings with Khaleda Zia at the reception programme at Dhaka Cantonment.
Khaleda last attended the Armed Forces Day function in 2012.
She reached Senakunja the venue at about 4:30pm to be welcomed by the army chief and other senior officers.
Khaleda Zia was accompanied by Sharmila Rahman Sinthi, wife of Khaleda’s youngest son late Arafat Rahman.
Central leaders of the political party were also with her.
Earlier in the afternoon at about 3:30pm, the former prime minister left her residence Feroza in her white Prado vehicle to attend the function at Senakunja. She attended the event in a wheelchair.
During the ceremony, chief adviser Yunus came to Khaleda Zia and inquired about her physical condition and discussed various issues for a while. Both of them were seen smiling. She left for home after the ceremony.
Student Movement Against Discrimination leaders, including advisers Mahfuz Alam, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, also exchanged greetings with Khaleda Zia.
BNP press wing member Shamsuddin Didar said that party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee members Khandaker Musharraf, Abdul Moyeen Khan and AZM Zahid Hossain, vice-chairman Altaf Hossain Chowdhury were present with her.
About the Senakunja event, Mirza Fakhrul said that the entire nation was delighted at the honour with which former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was received at the reception organised on the occasion of Armed Forces Day.
He told reporters that Khaleda Zia had spent the biggest part of her life for Bangladesh and for democracy, freedom and sovereignty. For 12 years, the most patriotic force, the armed forces, had been kept away from her in a planned manner.
‘Today, I would like to thank the members of the armed forces, especially army chief General Waqar-Uz-Zaman, navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan and the air force chief Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan. I especially thank our chief adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus for the honour he has shown to Madam [Khaleda Zia] today. As we are grateful, at the same time the entire nation is happy today,’ he said.
Khaleda Zia last visited Sylhet on February 5, 2018 at a public event. Later, on February 8, she was convicted in a corruption case and sent to jail.
Then in 2020, she was released by an executive order during the time of the now ousted Awami League government amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But she was not allowed to attend any public events.
In November 2010, then opposition leader Khaleda Zia was evicted from her cantonment home since when she did not visit the cantonment.
– Input from New Age was used in this article.
