TDS Desk:

Former prime minister and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia has reached the United Kingdom for advanced treatment.

The special air ambulance carrying her landed at Heathrow airport in London at 9:05 am on Wednesday (local time).

Her elder son and acting chairman of the BNP, Tarique Rahman, along with his wife Zubaida Rahman, welcomed her at the airport, while  the acting high-commissioner of Bangladesh in the UK, Hazrat Ali Khan, received her with a flower bucket.

The BNP chief last visited London on 15 July 2017. Since then, she has not met her son who has been in exile in the UK as she was not allowed to depart the country.

To welcome her in London, a large number of BNP leaders and activists, including BNP’s UK wing president MA Khalek and its general secretary Kaisar M Ahmad, gathered at the airport.

She is supposed to leave the airport through the royal VVIP gate of the airport, upon completion of immigration formalities.

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani provided the special air ambulance from the royal fleet after learning about the illness of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Four doctors and paramedics from Qatar and six members of Khaleda Zia’s medical board from Dhaka accompanied her in the air ambulance.

Medical board members accompanying Khaleda Zia are Shahabuddin Talukder, FM Siddique, Nuruddin Ahmed, Zafar Iqbal, AZM Zahid Hossain and Mohammad Al Mamun.

Syeda Sharmila Rahman, wife of Begum Khaleda Zia’s youngest son late Arafat Rahman, member of the chairperson’s advisory council Enamul Haque Chowdhury, member of BNP executive committee Tabith Awal and Khaleda Zia’s private secretary ABM Abdus Sattar, accompanied her along with a few personal staff.

Earlier, Khaleda left her Firoza residence in Dhaka at 8:15pm on Tuesday but her motorcade could not cross Gulshan-2 intersection due to the crowd of party leaders and activists until 9pm. Thousands of people see her off on both sides of the street.