Khaleda Zia died on Tuesday around 6 a.m., according to a statement from her party on social media. “We pray for the eternal peace of her soul and ask everyone to pray for her departed soul,” the statement said.
Minister of External Affairs (EAM) S Jaishankar will travel to Dhaka on Wednesday (December 31) to attend the funeral of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Zia, the neighboring country’s first female prime minister and chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), died on Tuesday morning at the age of 80. She had been treated for more than a month in a hospital in the capital Dhaka.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement: “The Minister of State, Dr. S. Jaishankar, will represent the government and people of India at the funeral of Begum Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He will accordingly visit Dhaka on December 31, 2025.” Zia died around 6 a.m. on December 30, according to a statement from her party on social media. “We pray for the eternal peace of her soul and ask everyone to pray for her departed soul,” the statement said.
Zia was admitted to Evercare Hospital in Dhaka on November 23 after contracting a lung infection. The former prime minister had long suffered from a number of ailments, including heart disease, diabetes and kidney problems. Earlier this month, she was taken to London, United Kingdom, for advanced medical treatment. Several heads of state, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, paid tribute to Zia after her death. Zia’s death comes just days after her son and acting chairman of her party, Tarique Rahman, returned to Dhaka after 17 years in exile. Rahman is seen as one of the leading contenders for the post of prime minister ahead of Bangladesh’s elections, expected to take place in February 2026.
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