Staff Correspondent:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia will return home from London after four months on next Monday.

She will arrive at Sylhet Osmani International Airport at 9:00am on a regular flight of Bangladesh Airlines. She will then return to Dhaka on the same flight.

Sylhet district BNP President Abdul Qayyum Chowdhury confirmed to Prothom Alo that Khaleda Zia will reach Dhaka via Sylhet. He said that BNP, alongside the mass people, has made extensive preparations to welcome the national leader Khaleda Zia.

The former PM will be accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, Zubaida Rahman and Sharmila Rahman. Apart from them, Khaleda Zia’s personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain, the Chairperson’s Adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury, Assistant Personal Secretary Masudur Rahman and two housekeepers, Fatema Begum and Rupa Haque, will also be accompanying her.

Sylhet BNP leaders said that the party leaders and activists have been exuberant to welcome Khaleda Zia. Top-level leaders have also instructed the leaders and activists of the party and its affiliate organisations, supporters, well-wishers and people from all walks of life to be present in front of the airport by 8:00am on Monday to welcome the former PM.

The local BNP said that even if Khaleda Zia returns to Dhaka via Sylhet, she will not take part in any meeting or rally in Sylhet.

The plane will leave Osmani Airport for Dhaka after disembarking the Sylhet passengers of the Bangladesh Airlines flight. Khaleda Zia will stay at the Sylhet airport for about an hour during this time.

During her stay there, a delegation of the BNP Chairperson’s advisers in Sylhet, the Organising Secretary and Assistant Organising Secretary of the Central BNP in charge of Sylhet Division, and the President and General Secretaries of Sylhet district and city BNP will pay her a courtesy call. Later, the BNP delegation will brief the media and party men present and convey Khaleda Zia’s message.

City BNP’s Acting President Rezaul Hasan Koyes Lodhi told on Saturday our leader will touch Sylhet after a long time. This has excited the local leaders and activists. They will gather in front of the airport to share their joy. City and district units of BNP are preparing to welcome her.”

Khaleda Zia was incarcerated after being arrested in a graft case in 2018. The previous government freed her on conditions during the outbreak of Coronavirus.

Since then she had been receiving treatment at her Gulshan house and hospital. Following the fall of Awami League government in a mass uprising on 5 August, Khaleda Zia was freed by an order of President Md Shahabuddin. The court later dismissed the graft cases she was convicted in.

The former PM was taken to London for advanced treatment on 8 January. After receiving treatment at London Clinic for 17 days, she moved to her elder son Tarique Rahman’s house where she spent Eid day with family members after more than six years.

Khaleda Zia has been receiving treatment for multiple ailments including liver cirrhosis, kidney and heart complications, arthritis and diabetes.