Khaleda Zia skips paying homage on Independence Day at Savar memorial

Three times prime minister Khaleda Zia has not gone to the National Memorial to pay homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 March 2015, 07:07 AM
Updated : 26 March 2015, 07:25 AM

The BNP chairperson had earlier also skipped paying the customary tribute to language martyrs on Feb 21 this year.

She has been staying at her Gulshan office since early January after the police stopped her twice from leaving.

Khaleda called an indefinite agitation across Bangladesh to press the demand for an interim election under a ‘non-party’ government.

She had also refrained from paying respect at BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s mausoleum on Jan 19 on his birth anniversary.

Several senior BNP leaders, including Standing Committee members Mahbubur Rahman and Abdul Moin Khan paid tributes Thursday on behalf of the party chief at the National Memorial in Savar.

Accompanied by almost a hundred supporters, the party leaders placed a wreath at the memorial around 8am, before standing in silence to pay respect to the Liberation War martyrs.

Khaleda Zia has kept herself confined at her office for the last two and half months as her agitation goes on.

She had even bid the final farewell to her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco from that office, whose body was brought there after dying in Malaysia.

The BNP chief has been also skipping hearing for graft cases, which prompted the court to issue an arrest warrant.

From what her lawyers told the court, it seems that the party fears that she will be not allowed to return to the office once leaving it.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by Khaleda Zia on Independence Day describes Bangladesh’s present state as ‘abnormal’.

“This year’s Independence Day is being observed in a time when democracy has been banished from the country,” it reads.