The Awami League had urged her to not celebrate birthday on a day of mourning for Bangladesh’s fallen independence hero, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The architect of Bangladesh was assassinated with much of his family this day in 1975 by a group of disgruntled military officers.
But responding to that call, senior BNP leader Gayeshwar Chnadra Roy has said that ‘snide remarks’ by ruling party leaders have ‘forced’ their party to observe this birthday with such vigour.
Since 1991, when she first became Prime Minister, the BNP chief has been celebrating Aug 15 as her ‘official birthday’.
She has been roundly criticised for doing that, but that has not stopped Khaleda from celebrating her ‘birthday’ on Aug 15.
Khaleda cut the 50-pound cake at 12:01am at her Gulshan office as party leaders and activists wished her ‘Happy Birthday’.
BNP’s Dhaka metropolitan unit and the party’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal also brought two more cakes.
Khaleda, after the first cake, cut those two too. She then ordered the party leaders to distribute the cakes among the students of orphanages after receiving flowers from party supporters at her office’s gate.
As he was cutting the cakes, she was accompanied by senior and central party leaders including acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Jamiruddin Sircar, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan and other well wishers.
Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, Swecchasebak Dal, Mohila Dal and Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha will cut another cake on Friday morning at the BNP’s Naya Paltan headquarters to mark her birthday.
According to BNP, Khaleda stepped into 69 this year.
But Khaleda's birthday has always been a matter of contention.
Her latest passport says she was born in 1946, but on Thursday a senior BNP leader proclaimed that her birth year was 1945.
Several books on her life and a Banglapedia entry say she was born in 1945.
Khaleda's father Iskandar Majumder, originally from Feni, was a resident of Dinajpur. Khaleda was born there. Her mother was Tayeba Majumder.