DHAKA, Dec 30, 2025 – Begum Khaleda Zia, Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a three-time former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, passed away early this morning while undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka. She was 80.

“Our beloved Deshnetri Begum Khaleda Zia passed away around 6:00am, shortly after Fajr prayers,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters outside the hospital.

Khaleda Zia had long been battling multiple health complications, including heart and lung ailments, liver and kidney disorders, diabetes, arthritis and eye-related problems. She had a permanent pacemaker and had previously undergone cardiac stenting.

She was admitted to Evercare Hospital on November 23 on the recommendation of her medical board after being diagnosed with infections in her heart and lungs, and was also suffering from pneumonia. Following her return from London on May 6, where she received advanced medical treatment, she had been undergoing regular follow-up care at the hospital.

Widely regarded as one of the most uncompromising leaders in Bangladesh’s political history, Khaleda Zia played a pivotal role in restoring parliamentary democracy in the early 1990s. She became the country’s first female prime minister after the 1991 general elections, which marked a major milestone in Bangladesh’s democratic journey.

During her tenure, she reintroduced the parliamentary form of government and oversaw the introduction of the caretaker government system aimed at ensuring free, fair and credible elections.

Khaleda Zia had remained incarcerated since 2018. Over the years, her party leaders and family members repeatedly appealed to the authorities to allow her to seek advanced medical treatment abroad, citing her deteriorating health.

She is survived by her elder son Tarique Rahman, BNP’s Acting Chairman, who returned to Bangladesh on December 25 after 17 years in exile. Her younger son, Arafat Rahman Koko, passed away several years ago in Malaysia.

Born in Dinajpur in 1945, Khaleda Zia received her early education at Dinajpur Missionary School and later completed her matriculation from Dinajpur Girls’ School in 1960. Her father, Iskandar Mazumder, was a businessman, while her mother, Tayeba Mazumder, was a homemaker. Nicknamed “Putul,” she was the second among three sisters and two brothers.

In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman, then a captain in the Pakistan Army, and continued her studies at Surendranath College in Dinajpur until 1965. Ziaur Rahman later played a key role in Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.

Following Ziaur Rahman’s assassination on May 30, 1981, the BNP faced a leadership vacuum. Khaleda Zia, who had no prior political experience, joined the party and was appointed its vice-chairperson in January 1984. She was elected BNP chairperson in May the same year and was re-elected to the post in January 2010.

Under her leadership, the BNP spearheaded a broad-based movement against the autocratic regime of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Despite repeated restrictions on her movement and multiple detentions, Khaleda Zia remained at the forefront of the anti-authoritarian struggle, earning a reputation as an “uncompromising leader.”

In the 1991 parliamentary elections, the BNP secured a decisive victory, emerging as the single largest party. Khaleda Zia contested five constituencies in three consecutive parliamentary elections and won in all of them.

She was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 20, 1991, and later took oath again under the restored parliamentary system on September 19 the same year—cementing her place as one of the most influential figures in Bangladesh’s modern political history.