Critically ill former Bangladesh PM Zia to be taken to London, doctors say

Dhaka: A medical board looking after critically ill former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia on Thursday decided to send her to London for advanced treatment, her personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain said.

Zia, the 80-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, will be flown in an air ambulance late after midnight or early Friday to London, where her elder son and acting BNP chief Tarique Rahman lives.

After she developed a chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs, Zia was admitted to a private hospital here on November 23 and four days later, shifted to the coronary care unit (CCU) after several of her health complications worsened.

“The medical board has unanimously decided that she will be taken to London via the Qatar Royal Air Ambulance, either after midnight tonight or early tomorrow morning,” Hossain told reporters during a briefing outside the hospital.

Hossain, who is also a member of BNP’s policy making standing committee, however, did not explicitly comment on Zia's current health condition.

During the last such briefing on Tuesday, he said Zia was responding to the treatment. Hossain’s briefing confirmed earlier media reports that Zia’s family was preparing to transfer her to London while adding that the decision for her urgent transfer was made by the extended medical board incorporating the recently arrived specialist teams from China and the United Kingdom.

The BNP also issued a list saying 14 people, one of them being Syeda Shameela Rahman, wife of Zia’s deceased younger son Arafat Rahman and six being doctors, who will accompany Zia to London.

The others include a party leader and Zia’s adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury, two agents of the elite Special Security Force (SSF) provided by Muhammad Yunus’ interim government and her personal aides.

Qatar had already offered to provide the air ambulance for Zia for taking her to London even as two military and air force helicopters on Thursday staged landing tests at the rooftop of the hospital, where she is admitted. Presumably, she will be flown from the hospital to the airport in one such helicopter.

Meanwhile, a four-member Chinese medical team, comprising doctors Chi Jiang Fang, Yan Xin, Zhong Yuhui, and Meng Huang Wu, arrived at the hospital late on Wednesday night and met with the medical board to review treatment options for the BNP chairperson, the state-run BSS news agency reported.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met the specialists upon their arrival and discussed Zia's treatment with them, according to news portal bdnews24.com.

The Chinese doctors joined a four-member UK specialist group led by Dr Richard Buell that had arrived earlier in the day to help chart an advanced treatment plan.

The team's arrival marked the second batch of Chinese doctors, who had arrived earlier this week. A five-member advance team from China had arrived in Dhaka on December 1 to provide preliminary assistance.

Interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday visited the hospital to enquire about Zia's health, a day after the army, navy and air force chiefs visited her.

The former prime minister’s younger brother Shamim Iskandar, his wife Kaniz Fatema, and Zia’s deceased younger son’s wife Sharmila Rahman are among the relatives present at the hospital.

Earlier, in a Facebook post on Saturday, Tarique Rahman wrote: “In this time of crisis, like any child, I too long for the comforting touch of my mother.”

“But unlike others, to make a unilateral decision in this regard is not in my hands alone nor solely within my control. The sensitivity of this matter also limits the scope for detailed explanation,” he wrote.

The post sparked speculations about what debarred his return home.

Rahman has been living in London since 2008 while he was charged and convicted in several graft and criminal cases during the then military-backed caretaker government and subsequent Awami League regime of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In 2024, Yunus' interim government withdrew all the cases and courts acquitted him under revised judgments.

After his emotional post on Facebook last week, several government advisers said there was no bar on his return and promised him required security on his arrival.

Foreign adviser Touhid Hossain said the authorities were ready to issue his travel document in a day if his passport expired but the Bangladesh embassy in the UK received no request so far for his travel document.

“Until Wednesday evening, he has not sought any travel pass,” Hossain told reporters.

Meanwhile, supporters and organisations across Bangladesh, including in Dhaka and districts such as Jhenaidah, Sunamganj, Bagerhat, Cumilla, Chuadanga and Munshiganj, held prayer gatherings seeking Zia's recovery.