Staff Reporter :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will observe fasting and receive treatment during the holy month of Ramadan staying at home quarantine, said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday.
“Madam (Khaleda) has been in quarantine amid the coronavirus shutdown. She’s been receiving treatment from her personal physicians for her illness. She’ll observe fasting remaining in quarantine,” he said.
Talking to reporters on Friday, Fakhrul said their chairperson greeted the
Muslims in Bangladesh and elsewhere the world on the eve of Ramadan.
A member of Khaleda’s personal physicians, wishing anonymity, said the BNP chief is passing time by talking to her son Tarique, two daughters-in-law and granddaughters, reciting from the verses of the holy Quran, reading books and offering prayers.
He said only doctors and close relatives can now meet Khaleda as she wants to remain in isolation until the coronavirus situation improves.
BNP vice chairman and its chairperson’s personal physician Dr AZM Zahid Hossain said Khaleda’s heath condition remains unchanged. “There’s no relief for her from pain in her hands and legs though she’s been undergone therapy. Her diabetes is also still uncontrolled.”
He said Khaleda is worried about the coronavirus situation and its impacts on the country.
On March 25 last, the government released Khaleda Zia from jail for six months in an executive order taking her age into consideration and on humanitarian ground.
The government passed the executive order for her release on two conditions — receiving treatment staying at her Gulshan residence and not leaving the country.
Following her release from the cabin at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), sick Khaleda was drove to her Gulshan residence “Firoza.” She was on 14-day home quarantine at the advise of her physicians. Though her two-week in quarantine ended, she is still in quarantine.
Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Central Jail after she had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by a special court in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. The 75-year-old Khaleda Zia has been suffering from rheumatoid artheritis, diabetes and hypertension for a long time.
