Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia To Be Airlifted To London As Health Worsens | Exclusive

Last Updated:December 04, 2025, 23:55 IST

Khaleda Zia is suffering from multiple organ complications, leaving her condition “highly fragile” as her vital parameters continue to fluctuate.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia remains hospitalised and in critical condition. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia would be shifted to London tomorrow as her health condition deteriorated sharply, placing her on full life support, sources told CNN-News18.

Zia, the 80-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, will be flown in a private ambulance of the Qatar Army, accompanied by her son Tarique Rahman’s wife, to London as part of the emergency evacuation plan, according to sources in Dhaka.

According to doctors overseeing her care, Zia is suffering from multiple organ complications, leaving her condition “highly fragile” as her vital parameters continue to fluctuate. Emergency medical interventions are being carried out round the clock in an effort to stabilise her.

After she developed a chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs, Zia was admitted to a private hospital in Dhaka on November 23 and four days later was shifted to the coronary care unit (CCU) after several of her health complications worsened.

She is being treated under a medical board that includes specialists from Bangladesh, Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States, and the London Clinic. The Chinese doctors have joined this team to assist.

“The medical board has unanimously decided that she will be taken to London via the Qatar Royal Air Ambulance, either after midnight tonight or early tomorrow morning,” her personal physician, AZM Zahid Hossain, said as quoted by news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, senior leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are on high alert, describing the situation as “unprecedented and deeply worrying”. With her deteriorating health raising alarm within the party and among supporters, BNP officials have said they are prepared for “any outcome”.

The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, is facing mounting pressure to allow Zia to seek medical treatment abroad. Her family and party have long argued that advanced care outside the country is essential, given the complexity of her medical condition.

Sources told CNN-News18 that preparations for her transfer are in the final stages, with medical teams coordinating closely to ensure her safe movement to London for urgent treatment.

Meanwhile, the BNP issued a list saying 14 people, one of them being Syeda Shameela Rahman, wife of Zia’s deceased younger son Arafat Rahman and six being doctors, who will accompany Zia to London. The others include a party leader and Zia’s adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury, two agents of the elite Special Security Force (SSF) provided by Muhammad Yunus’ interim government, and her personal aides.

Interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday visited the hospital to enquire about Zia’s health, a day after the army, nav,y and air force chiefs visited her.

In a Facebook post last week, Tarique Rahman said, “In this time of crisis, like any child, I too long for the comforting touch of my mother.” “But unlike others, to make a unilateral decision in this regard is not in my hands alone nor solely within my control. The sensitivity of this matter also limits the scope for detailed explanation,” he wrote.

The post sparked speculations about what debarred his return home.

Rahman has been living in London since 2008, while he was charged and convicted in several graft and criminal cases during the then military-backed caretaker government and subsequent Awami League regime of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In 2024, the interim government withdrew all the case,s and courts acquitted him under revised judgments.

News world Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia To Be Airlifted To London As Health Worsens | Exclusive

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