Khaleda turns 69 Thursday

A special prayer will be held in BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence on Thursday to commemorate her 69th birthday.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 August 2013, 05:02 PM
Updated : 14 August 2013, 05:23 PM

She will also exchange greetings there with relatives, her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal told bdnews24.com on Wednesday.

The three-time Prime Minister was born in 1945. But, there is a lot of debate about her actual date of birth.

Khaleda has been observing the day since 1991, when she became Prime Minister for the first time.

Maruf Kamal said, “Like previous years, she will celebrate the day unceremoniously.”

Khaleda will celebrate the day without her two sons as both Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman are out of the country.

Khaleda, almost every year, visits her office in Gulshan in the early hours of her birthday. Thousands of party leaders and activists greet her there.

Maruf Kamal said Khaleda would not be doing that this time due to the on-going strike by her party’s key partner Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Jamaat lockdown will end at 6am Thursday.

BNP Deputy Office Secretary Asadul Karim Shahin said the party had not undertaken any official programme to mark the day.

File Photo

He said the associate organisations of the party will cut a cake at 11am in the party’s central office in Naya Paltan.
Born to Eskander Majumder and Toiyba Majumder in 1945 at Feni's Sonagazi, Khaleda, nicknamed Putul, spent her childhood in Dinajpur.
According to her marriage certificate, her birthday is Sept 5, 1945 and in her first passport it is Aug 19, 1946. She put the date as Aug 9, 1944 for registration of the matriculation exams.
Khaleda is criticised for celebrating her birthday on a day when Bangabanhdu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, nation’s founding father, was brutally murdered in 1975.