BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia passed away around 6 am on Tuesday (December 30) while undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.
She was 80.
The party’s Media Cell informed the matter in a Facebook post.
Details of her funeral prayers will be announced later, BNP chairperson’s press wing member Shamsuddin Didar said in a statement.
Relatives and senior party figures were at the hospital in her final hours, including her eldest son and BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, his wife Dr Zubaida Rahman, their daughter Zaima Rahman, her younger daughter-in-law Sharmila Rahman Sithi, her elder sister Selina Islam, her younger brother Shamim Iskander, and BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, among others.
Earlier, at around 2:20 am, her personal physician Dr AZM Zahid Hossain told reporters she was going through an “extremely critical period” in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Evercare Hospital.
The former three-time prime minister was admitted to the hospital on 23 November with infections affecting her heart and lungs.
As her condition gradually worsened, she was moved from a cabin to the coronary care unit (CCU), and later to the ICU.
Khaleda Zia had long faced multiple health complications, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis and diabetes, as well as chronic problems affecting her kidneys, lungs, heart and eyes.
Her treatment was supervised by a medical board led by cardiologist Professor (Dr) Md Shahabuddin Talukder, with specialist doctors from Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and Australia.
Earlier this month, there was an initiative to take her abroad for treatment, but it could not proceed because of her fragile condition.
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