BNP Chairperson and three-time former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has passed away (Inna Lillahi wa Inna Ilaihi Rajiun). She died at 6:00am on Tuesday (December 30).
The news was confirmed in a post by the BNP Media Cell on its official Facebook page. Party records show differing accounts of her birth year. According to the BNP website, Khaleda Zia was born in 1946. However, the book Nandit Netri: Khaleda Zia, written by her former Deputy Press Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmed, states that she was born on August 15, 1945, in Nayabasti of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, then part of undivided India. The book’s foreword was written by the late Professor Emajuddin Ahmed.
Describing her birth, Abdal Ahmed wrote that the family welcomed her on a calm autumn morning, marking the occasion with joy. Her birth name was Khaleda Khanam. Within the family, she was affectionately known by several nicknames, including Putul, Tipsy and Shanti. The name ‘Shanti’ was given by Dr Abniguh Niyogi, a close friend of her father Iskander Majumdar, reflecting the global yearning for peace in the aftermath of World War II.
Khaleda Zia’s ancestral home is in Fulgazi upazila of Feni. She was the daughter of Iskander Majumdar and Begum Taiba Majumdar. She was the third among five siblings—three sisters and two brothers. Of them, her sister Selina Rahman and brother Shamim Iskander are still alive. She was the mother of two sons: BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and the late Arafat Rahman Coco.
According to BNP Chairperson’s Media Wing member Shairul Kabir Khan, Khaleda Zia spent nearly half her life as the wife of President Ziaur Rahman. She formally joined the BNP on January 3, 1982, rose to senior vice chairperson in March 1983, and delivered her first major speech at the party’s extended meeting on April 1 that year. During President Justice Abdus Sattar’s illness, she served as acting chairperson before being elected BNP Chairperson on May 10, 1984.
Khaleda Zia entered prison multiple times during her political career. In 2018, a lower court sentenced her to five years in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case, a verdict later increased to 10 years by the High Court. She was held under special arrangements at the Old Dhaka central jail before being transferred to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, she was conditionally released for six months on humanitarian grounds—a period that was subsequently extended in stages. She was finally released by presidential order following the August 5 uprising, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country.
Earlier, during the caretaker government in 2007, Khaleda Zia was imprisoned on September 3 and later freed on bail on September 11, 2008.
Khaleda Zia served as Prime Minister three times—in 1991, 1996 and 2001, with her second term lasting just one month. After leading the BNP to victory in the 1991 election, she became Prime Minister of the Fifth Parliament and oversaw the passage of the 12th constitutional amendment, restoring the parliamentary system of government.
Following the February 1996 election, she briefly headed the Sixth Parliament before becoming opposition leader later that year. She returned to power in 2001 through a four-party alliance. After losing the 2008 election, she again took on the role of opposition leader. The BNP boycotted the 2014 election, participated in 2018 while she remained imprisoned, and stayed out of the 2024 parliamentary polls.
Her last visit to the Rohingya refugee camps was on October 30, 2017, when she distributed relief through the army. Her final press conference took place on February 7, 2018, a day before her imprisonment. According to party records, her last public rally was held in 2017.
Khaleda Zia’s birthday observances often drew public attention. While she cut a cake in 2014, she refrained from celebrations in later years due to national tragedies, political turmoil, and her imprisonment. After 2018, she never marked the occasion publicly again.
With her death, Bangladesh closes a major chapter in its political history.
