Bangladesh's first female Prime Minister and chairwoman of the Bangladesh National Party, Khaleda Zia, has died at the age of 80. She was undergoing treatment in a hospital.

According to doctors, Zia had liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, chest and heart problems. Zia passed away at 6 am local time on Tuesday in a hospital BNP has given information in a statement.

‘We pray for the eternal peace of her soul,’ the statement said. Bangladesh’s interim government’s advisor Mohammad Yunus has lost a guardian.

‘She fought many times to free the country from the undemocratic situation. Through her uncompromising leadership, she inspired the country to achieve freedom,’ the statement issued by Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus said.

Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is living in exile in India, has said that Khaleda’s struggle for democracy will always be remembered by everyone. "I express my deep condolences on the passing of BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. She was the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh and made a great contribution to the struggle to establish democracy in Bangladesh," Hasina said in a statement.

The Hasina administration had kept Zia in jail for some time since 2018 and under house arrest since 2020. She was also barred from traveling abroad for medical treatment. Zia was last seen in public shortly after Hasina was ousted following a successful student movement last year.

Last November, Khaleda announced that she would join the upcoming election campaign. But she was hospitalized shortly after that. Bangladesh is holding a general election on February 12. The BNP is projected to win the most seats in this election.

Zia's son Tariq Rahman has returned home after 17 years of exile and is busy campaigning for the party. This time, the BNP is contesting the elections under the leadership of its executive chairman Tariq.

Political struggle, power and prison

Khaleda was born in Jalpaiguri, in the then Bengal province of British India in 1945. After India's independence and the partition of Bengal in 1947, her family moved to Dinaipur in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In 1960, at the age of 15, Zia married Ziaur Rahman, who was then a captain in the Pakistan Army. Khaleda then started writing Zia after her name.

Ziaur Rahman played a leading role in the war for independence of Bangladesh by rebelling against the Pakistani army. He is also known as the 'Declarer of Independence', because on March 27, 1971, in Chittagong, He was the first to publicly announce the independence of Bangladesh from Kalurghat Radio Station.

After Bangladesh's independence, Ziaur, who became the army chief and later the president, was assassinated in a military coup in 1981.

 Zia, 35, then took on the responsibility of her two sons, the political legacy left by her husband, and the flag of the democratic movement in Bangladesh. Khaleda took over the leadership of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) founded by Ziaur in 1984. She led the popular democratic movement that ousted the military ruler Hussain Mohammad Ershad.

Sheikh Hasina, the founding president of Bangladesh, was also at the forefront of this uprising. However, despite joining the movement with the same agenda, Zia and Hasina did not have a good relationship. That is why she was also called the 'Fighting Begum'.

Ershad's military rule collapsed in 1991. The BNP became the first party to win Bangladesh's first independent elections. Khaleda formed the government with the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh's first female prime minister, is the second woman to be elected prime minister in a Muslim-majority country after Benazir Bhutto (Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988).

During Zia's tenure, primary education was made compulsory and free in Bangladesh. She amended laws to allow foreigners to enter Bangladesh.

After Hasina's Awami League won a majority in the 1996 elections, Zia remained in opposition for five years. She then returned to government in 2001. In 2004, a grenade attack on Hasina's rally killed more than 20 people and injured more than 500. In 2006, after political instability and violence, an interim government was formed with the support of the military. This government imprisoned both Khaleda and Hasina for a year on corruption charges. They were released just before the 2008 elections. Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won a majority in these elections. Then the arrests and imprisonment of opponents began. This further increased the hostility between Hasina and Khaleda. In 2015, Zia lost her son. Her younger son Arafat Rahman, who was once the chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board's development committee, died of a heart attack. Khaleda's eldest son Tariq was in exile in London at the time. The Hasina government sentenced Khaleda and her son Tariq Rahman, along with several BNP leaders and activists, to life imprisonment for their role in the 2018 grenade attack.

Khaleda was initially placed in jail and then under house arrest. She was also barred from traveling abroad for medical treatment. Tariq did not have to serve her prison sentence because she was abroad. The BNP has been calling the decision a political vendetta. Khaleda only made her public appearance after six years after the student movement was successful last year. Bangladesh declares three days of national mourning

Bangladesh has declared three days of national mourning. Khaleda's funeral will be held on Wednesday. Asif Nazrul, who is the law minister in the interim government, said a memorial service will be held in front of the parliament building. Similarly, along with the tomb of former president Ziyur Rahman, He said that Zia's body will be cremated. World leaders have expressed their condolences to Zia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Nepalese Prime Minister Sushila Karki and other leaders from various countries have sent messages of condolence.