Hasina, Khaleda will spend Eid-ul-Azha away in New York, London

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her bitter political rival BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will be spending this Eid-ul-Azha out of the country in two different global metropolises.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Choudhury, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam and more than a dozen senior Awami League and BNP leaders will be out of the country during the holiday.

The Eid will be celebrated in Bangladesh on Sep 25.

Hasina will join the United Nations General Assembly and be staying in New York from Sep 23 to Oct 1.

Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia

The prime minister will receive the UN’s highest environment honour, ‘Champions of the Earth’, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) award for ICTs in sustainable development.

Her tour party includes the finance, foreign and expatriates welfare ministers, her political and economic affairs advisors, and state ministers for foreign and women and children affairs.

Speaker Choudhury is going to the United States on Sept 23 to attend a programme of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and will return after Eid.

Awami League general Secretary Syed Ashraf will be with his family in London.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who also went there last Tuesday for medical check-up, will spend the Eid with son Tarique Rahman. Her adviser Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and another adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo’s son Tabith Awal are with her.

The BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has returned home after getting treatment abroad.

Senior leaders Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Osman Faruk, Abdus Salam, Ehsanul Haq Milon, Mintoo will join the party chief from the US. Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, Deputy Speaker Md Fazle Rabbi Mia, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque are in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and will be there during the Eid.