BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been hospitalised after falling sick.

Shamsuddin Didar, a member of the BNP chairperson’s media wing, told Bangla Tribune that he has been taken to the United Hospital in Dhaka around 10am on Monday.

“The secretary-general has been admitted to the hospital as he was not feeling well. The doctors are examining him,” he said.

In 2016, Mirza Fakhrul was diagnosed with a blocked brain artery on the neck while he was in prison. He had to go to the US and Singapore several times for medical treatment after securing bail on charges of violence.

Following BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s conviction in graft in February, her son Tarique Rahman is now the acting chairperson.

But Tarique, who has been convicted of money laundering and has warrants against him on several other cases, has been living in the UK since 2008.

Amid the situation, Mirza Fakhrul has been leading the party, which has now waged a movement for Khaleda’s release.

A former prime minister, Khaleda has been sentenced to five years in prison after the court found her guilty of misappropriating foreign funds donated to the Zia Orphanage Trust.

The 72-year-old is serving her sentence at the old jailhouse on Nazimuddin Road in Old Dhaka in the charge that she and her supporters describe as a politically motivated attempt to shut her out of election.