Staff Correspondent

BNP will observe the 81st birthday of its Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Friday in a low-key manner, holding only prayer programmes without cutting any cake.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said they will pray for their leader’s good health and speedy recovery through doa and milad mahfils, instead of celebrating with cake-cutting or other events.

He said doa and milad mahfils will be held at BNP offices across the country, including the party’s central office in Dhaka, and in mosques after Juma prayers, seeking Khaleda’s good health and long life, as well as eternal peace for those martyred during the 1971 Liberation War, the 1990 democratic movement, and the 2024 mass uprising.

The BNP leader said a milad mahfil will be held at 11am at the party’s Nayapaltan central office.

Rizvi urged the leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies to take part in the programme spontaneously.

A doa and milad mahfil will also be arranged at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office after Asr prayers.

Born on August 15, 1945, in Dinajpur, Khaleda served three terms as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and became the country’s first female Prime Minister in 1991.

She is the fourth among four sisters and two brothers. Her father was Iskandar Ali Majumder and her mother Begum Tayyeba Majumdar. Although her ancestral home is in Fulgazi Upazila of Feni, she spent her childhood and adolescence in Dinajpur, where her father worked.

After the assassination of her husband, former President Ziaur Rahman, on May 30, 1981, housewife Khaleda entered politics. She first became the party’s Vice-Chairman and was elected Chairperson in 1984.

Khaleda served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for three terms-- from 1991 to 1996, briefly on 15 February 1996, and from 2001 to 2006.

BNP leaders and workers used to celebrate her birthday every August 15 with a cake-cutting ceremony, but since 2016, the party has held only prayers and religious gatherings instead of political and celebration events.

In recent years, Khaleda has been unwell and is receiving intensive medical care at her Gulshan residence, ‘Feroza’.

She does not meet party members in person, although she exchanges Eid greetings with members of the party’s standing committee during the two Eids each year.