Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s 81st birthday is observed today (Aug 15).

Following BNP instructions in recent years, leaders and activists refrained from cutting cakes or holding festive gatherings. Instead, the day was observed through doa and milad mahfils at BNP offices and mosques nationwide, including a doa mahfil at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters. 

Prayers were offered for the martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War, victims of the 1990 mass uprising and the 2024 people’s movement, and for the recovery of the injured.

Born on August 15, 1945, in Dinajpur, Khaleda Zia rose to political prominence after the assassination of her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, in 1981. She joined the BNP in January 1982 and was elected party chairperson in May 1984. 

Khaleda became the country’s first female prime minister following the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991 and served three terms, also becoming the first woman to chair SAARC in 1993.

MN/