Dhaka (Bangladesh), Dec. 30 (LaPresse) – Khaleda Zia, former prime minister of Bangladesh and a central figure in national politics for over three decades, has died at the age of 80. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which she led, announced her death. The first woman elected prime minister of the country, Zia dominated the political scene alongside her long-time rival Sheikh Hasina, daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Their rivalry shaped Bangladeshi politics for a generation.
Widow of President Ziaur Rahman, founder of the BNP and killed in a coup in 1981, Khaleda Zia led the government several times. She returned to power in 2001 heading a coalition that included the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. In recent years, she faced corruption proceedings, which her party always claimed were politically motivated. Sentenced to 17 years in prison, she was released in 2020 for health reasons. In January 2025, the Supreme Court acquitted her in the last pending case.
After years of treatment in Bangladesh and repeated refusals by the Hasina government, she was allowed to go abroad only after the former prime minister’s fall in August 2024. She received medical care in London and returned home in May. In her later years, Zia stayed away from active politics, though she remained BNP president until her death. Since 2018, the party had been led on an interim basis by her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, considered her political heir.
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