BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been taken back to the prison following medical tests at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMUU) Hospital on Saturday.
The vehicle carrying her reached the old jailhouse at Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road around 2pm, sources at the jail authorities confirmed Bangla Tribune.
Earlier in the day, the former prime minister was taken to the BSMMU in the capital’s Shahbagh amid heavy police presence in the area.
Around 11:30am, the convoy reached the hospital premises. Khaleda got off the car and walked to get on the elevator at the hospital’s cabin block.
BSMMU authorities already had designated Cabin 512 for her, where the doctors of the medical board formed for her examined her and collected blood samples for diagnostic tests.
She was then taken the Department of Radiology and Imaging’s X-Ray Room 1/A, just beside the cabin block for an x-ray.
Khaleda was allowed for a brief meeting with her deceased son Arafat Rahman Coco’s wife and daughter, who had been waiting at the hospital prior to her arrival.
Shairul Kabir Khan, a member of the BNP chairperson’s media wing, told Bangla Tribune that she talked with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter while being taken to the radiology department from the cabin block.
The BNP chief’s personal physicians— Neurology specialist M Wahiduzzaman and Medicine's FM Siddiqui — were also allowed to meet her.
BNP supporters have gathered in the Shahbagh area on Saturday, when police detained at least four people.
Amid reports of Khaleda’s illness, a board was formed headed by Dhaka Medical College Department of Orthopedics chief Md Shamsuzzaman. Other board members are Dr Mansur Habib (neurology), Titu Mia, and Soheli Rahman (physical medicine).
The board examined the BNP chairperson in prison last week and said that her illness was not serious.
Khaleda Zia’s personal doctors had said she had heart, eye and knee problems and have to take medications.
On Apr 8, jail authorities denied a request from her personal doctors to meet her.
The BNP has expressed its concern over the party chief’s health. BNP leader Moudud Ahmed has claimed the board formed for her treatment was just for show.
On Friday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir visited Khaleda.
“Madam’s health is not good,” he told the media later, when he urged authorities to allow her personal physicians to examine her.
“Her arthritis has been deteriorating. She is finding it difficult to walk. She also has symptoms of neurological problems,” he said.
However, when 73-year-old Khaleda arrived the hospital on Saturday, she walked to get on the elevator from the car despite the authorities arranged for a wheel-chair.
Photo: Nashirul Islam
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