Khaleda Zia at Senakunja after 12 years

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia attended the Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment on Thursday after 12 years.

This is the first public appearance of the 79-year-old former Prime Minister in six years.

The BNP leader arrived at the event around 3:50 pm.

BNP's top leaders, including Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, also present at the event.

Khaleda Zia last participated in the Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment dating back to 2012.

BNP Chairperson has been suffering for years from liver cirrhosis, heart, lung, kidney and eye diseases.

She is now under the supervision of a medical board. The former premier is regularly receiving treatment at the capital's Evercare Hospital.

On February 8, 2018, the BNP chief was sent to jail after a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The High Court, on October 30 that year, amplified her jail term to 10 years. Later, the BNP chief was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

During coronavirus pandemic, the previous Awami League government temporarily freed Khaleda on March 25, 2020 through an executive order.

Her sentence was suspended with the conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not go overseas.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin exercised his presidential power under Article 49 of the constitution to relieve the BNP chief of her punishment, and she was finally freed on August 6 of this year.