Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday suspected that the party chairperson Begum Khaleda might have been subjected to slow-poisoning during her stay in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
‘As part of a plot hatched during the 1/11 changeover, she (Khaleda) was kept in jail by convicting her in false cases. She was kept for about two years in an abandoned damp building of the Old Dhaka’s Central Jail where rats used to run around,’ alleged the party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Speaking at a rally, the BNP leader said that the party chief was later taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from the jail, but she was not given proper treatment there.
‘Many people have this question now: was there any arrangement for slow-poisoning Khaleda Zia on that day? We want to know this clearly. Nothing is impossible for them (govt).’
He said that it was possible to do anything bad for the government when it could assume power by indulging in ‘vote robbery’ the night before the voting day, filing false cases against 35 lakh people, gunning down and maiming the pro-democracy leaders and activists, and making disappear around 500 opposition leaders and activists.
Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal arranged the rally in front of the Jatiya Press Club demanding Khaleda’s treatment abroad.
Khaleda, a 76-year-old former prime minister, was readmitted to Evercare Hospital on 13 November, six days after she had returned home from the hospital.
The BNP chief’s physicians said she has been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, critical cardiac, kidney ophthalmological and dental complications. The hemoglobin level in her blood has also dropped.
On behalf of the family, Khaleda’s younger brother, Shamim Iskander, submitted an application to the Home Ministry on 11 November urging the government to allow her to go abroad for better treatment.
Law Minister Anisul Huq, however, recently said the BNP chairperson first has to make a fresh application by going back to jail to go abroad for treatment.
