She was released last year, shortly after mass anti-government protests in Bangladesh toppled Hasina, forcing her into exile. The BNP had said in November that Zia would campaign in the upcoming general elections. <\/p>\n
The BNP is eyeing a return to power, and if that happens, Zia’s son Tarique Rahman is expected to become the country’s new leader.<\/p>\n
Rahman, 60, had only returned to Bangladesh last week after 17 years in self-imposed exile in London.<\/p>\n
Zia had been in hospital for the past month, receiving treatment for kidney damage, heart disease and pneumonia, among other conditions.<\/p>\n
Despite being kept away from public life due to her health, Zia remained a figurehead for opposition forces.<\/p>\n
During her final days, interim leader Muhammad Yunus had called for the country to pray for Zia, calling her a “source of utmost inspiration for the nation”.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday, Yunus offered his condolences for the passing of Zia, whom he described as a “symbol of the democratic movement”.<\/p>\n
“The nation has lost a great guardian… Her role in the struggle to establish democracy, a multi-party political culture, and the rights of the people in Bangladesh will be remembered forever,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “deeply saddened” by Zia’s passing and paid tribute to her contributions towards the development of Bangladesh, and its relations with India. <\/p>\n
“We hope that her vision and legacy will continue to guide our partnership,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Zia’s family members, including Rahman, his wife and his daughter, were by her side in her last moments, BNP said.<\/p>\n
“We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,” the party said in its statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She was released last year, shortly after mass anti-government protests in Bangladesh toppled Hasina, forcing her into exile.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-342343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}