(7 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dhaka, Bangladesh – 07 January 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) supporters gathered at Khaleda Zia’s residence to see off their party leader while a supporter waves a party flag
2. Various of Supporters marching and chanting slogans with banner and posters near Zia’s residence
3. SOUNDBITE (Bangla) Farhana Yasmin Atika, BNP supporter:
“The person (Khaleda Zia) whom we could not take abroad for treatment over the past seven years, despite the necessity, has finally returned to us on this momentous day. We offer immense gratitude and prayers to Allah, and we seek the prayers of the people of this country, all our leaders and activists, and the 180 million citizens of Bangladesh. May our mother (Khaleda Zia) receive proper treatment abroad and return to us in Bangladesh. We hope she can recover fully and return to establish democracy in Bangladesh."
4. Various of supporters chanting slogans in front of Zia’s residence
5. SOUNDBITE (Bangla) Sajjadul Miraz, BNP supporter:
“We were unable to make any arrangements to send our national leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, abroad for proper treatment during the tenure of the Awami League government. However, now, under an interim government led by Dr. Yunus, we express our gratitude to him for creating such an opportunity for our national leader, Khaleda Zia.”
6. Zia’s motorcade coming out from her residence while supporters and journalists surround the vehicle
7. Various of Zia sitting inside the car along with her relatives
8. Zia’s motorcade moving towards the airport
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) supporters gathered outside former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s residence on Tuesday to support her as she left for London for medical treatment.
Chanting her name and waving banners and flags, they marched on the street outside her home residence in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area as she left by car for the airport.
She leaves behind a nation grappling with uncertainty over its political future after her archrival, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in August.
An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026.
Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail under Hasina’s rule following two corruption cases stemming from 2001-2006 when she was prime minister.
Her supporters say the charges against her were politically motivated, an allegation Hasina’s administration denied.
Under Yunus, Zia was acquitted in one of the cases in November and an appeal in the second case was being heard on Tuesday.
Zia, 79, was freed on bail from jail under Hasina through a government order and she has been having medical treatment in the country.
But Hasina’s administration did not allow her to travel abroad for treatment despite requests seeking approval.
Zia’s aides said she was due to leave the capital, Dhaka, aboard a special air ambulance sent by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
Many other supporters waited for hours along the road leading toward Dhaka’s international airport.
Enamul Haque Chowdhury, a close aide of Zia, told reporters that the air ambulance had arrived from Doha to take her to London, where her eldest son and heir apparent Tarique Rahman has been in exile since 2007.
Rahman is the acting chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and is expected to lead the party toward the election.
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