Bangladesh ex-PM makes first public appearance in six years

Zia, 79, has been in declining health for years, is confined to a chair with rheumatoid arthritis, and even suffers from diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.

Except for a brief speech at a political protest in a digital information from a hospital bed up until Thursday, she had remained out of the public despite her release.

More than 20 of Zia’s leaders were present, according to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP ).

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the party’s secretary general, lost his composure and wept when Zia was present, according to the news Prothom Alo.

After being relocated from captivity during COVID-19, Zia’s majority of her word was house-assisted, but she repeatedly received denied requests to travel abroad for health care.

Zia was “very poor, having been kept in jail on bogus costs in a small, damp cell,” Alamgir claimed at a rally held on Wednesday in the area of Feni.

Without providing a specific time, Bangladeshi media reported in October that Zia was scheduled to travel abroad for health care.