DHAKA: BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has left Dhaka for London on Saturday (July 15).

She left the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in a flight of Emirates at about 7.30 pm.

The BNP chief’s press wing member Shyrul Kabir Khan said that Khaleda Zia flied to London for treatment of her eye and knee and to meet family members. After her treatment, she will return back home, he said.

The BNP chief’s private secretary Abdus Sattar and personal aide Fatema Begum accompanied her on the trip.

BNP standing committee members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Barrister Moudud Ahmed, the party’s vice-chairmen Abdullah-al-Noman, MA Mannan, Meer Mohammad Nasir and Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed and other senior leaders of the party saw off the BNP chief at the airport.

Besides, many leaders and workers of the party from different units of the Dhaka city thronged the airport area from noon on the occasion of Khaleda Zia’s London tour.  

Khaleda Zia will attend a seminar arranged by British Parliament during her visit. She will also join several other program in London during her stay there.

Several BNP leaders, including the party’s standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and international affairs secretary Barrister Rumin Farhana, have already left the country for London to join different programs with Khaleda Zia.

This will be a long trip for Khaleda Zia, and she is likely to return home after celebrating the Eid-ul-Azha with her family members in London, sources said.

Khaleda Zia had gone to London in September 2015 for treatment purpose.

She had also celebrated Eid-ul-Azha with her elder son Tarique Rahman and his family members and family members of Khaleda Zia’s younger son late Arafat Rahman Koko.

Tarique Rahman, senior vice-chairman of the BNP, has been staying in the United Kingdom since September in 2008.

BDST: 2006 HRS, JULY 15, 2017
EHJ