Khaleda Zia gets back police escort after nine years

BNP Chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia got back the police escort facility today (15 August) after nearly a decade.

A team of police went to the BNP chairperson's Gulshan residence today to ensure her security after meeting her chief security coordinator Col (retd) Mohammad Ishaq Miah, said BNP media cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

Earlier on 13 August, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order to ensure police escort for Khaleda Zia.

The police escort was withdrawn by the then Awami League government after Khaleda Zia lost her post as the opposition leader in parliament in 2015.

On 6 August, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

She was placed in Old Dhaka Central Jail on 8 February 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. On 30 October 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

Khaleda, aged 80, has long battled various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.

Since her conditional release from jail in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment frequently at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.

Khaleda's doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

On 26 October last year, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure known as the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accretion in Khaleda Zia's stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.