Bangladesh's Khaleda Zia calls for calm in first public address after six-year hiatus

Freed Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday called for restraint as the country moves to form a transitional government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country following weeks of violent protests.

In her first public address following her release from house arrest, former Prime Minister Zia urged party members and people to refrain from destruction and revenge, respecting all religions and communities.

"This victory has brought us new possibilities," she said, adding: “We have to build a prosperous Bangladesh from the ruins of democracy and corruption. Heroic children made the impossible possible through mortal struggle. Pay respect to hundreds of martyrs (killed during the student protests).”

Zia, 79, delivered the public speech at a rally in front of the BNP headquarters in Dhaka after more than six and a half years. She addressed the rally via a video recorded at a hospital where she is undergoing treatment for numerous complications.

A prosperous Bangladesh should be built on the basis of human rights, social justice and equality, she continued.

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Her son Tarique Rahman, now in exile in the UK, also addressed the rally virtually.

Earlier, President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of Zia on Monday, hours after Hasina fled the country amid widespread student protests against the public jobs quota.

In February 2018, a court sentenced her to five years in prison. She was kept in an abandoned jail in Old Dhaka. In March 2020 she got released from jail on health grounds and was placed under house arrest by the executive order of the government.

Zia, the chairperson of the BNP and a two-term prime minister of Bangladesh (1991-1996 and 2001-2006), has been under arrest since 2018.