Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Senior leaders of the BNP demanded on Friday a trial for those involved in the ill-treatment of Khaleda Zia while she was in jail on false charges.
Claiming that their party Chairperson, Khaleda Zia, was subjected to extreme repression during her time in jail, BNP senior leader Mirza Abbas demanded that those responsible be brought to trial.
The party's standing committee member, Abbas, made this statement at a prayer and milad mahfil programme at the BNP central office in Naya Paltan to mark Khaleda Zia's 81st birth anniversary.
He mentioned that she was placed in a room infested with rats and insects, where even an animal would struggle to survive, let alone a human being.
Abbas emphasised the unfair treatment by some deputy jailers and jail officials who kept her in a room on the roof. He called for an investigation into the torture she endured during her time in jail and for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Khaleda Zia was convicted in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission on February 8, 2008, and sent to prison.
She became ill after being kept in the damp environment of the old prison without proper medical treatment.
Despite requests from her family to take her abroad for better treatment as advised by a specialist doctor, the then Hasina government rejected it.
On her birthday, prayers and milad mahfils are being held at various mosques, orphanages, and madrasas across the country, including in the city.
Standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan mentioned that Khaleda Zia received incorrect medical treatment in jail, which worsened her condition.
He also demanded punishment for those involved in the process in jail.
BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy also spoke at the milad and doa mahfil in Naya Paltan, hosted by the party's senior joint secretary-general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
nsrafsanju@gmail.com