Khaleda Zia’s Virtual Speech Marks Public Reappearance After Years of Silence
After nearly a year of silence and more than seven years since her last public address, former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Begum Khaleda Zia, delivered a virtual speech on Tuesday, July 1. Her remarks were part of a discussion marking the anniversary of the July-August mass uprising, a month of mourning, and victory, attended by members of various political parties and families of the movement's martyrs and injured.
Speaking from her residence in Gulshan and connecting to the China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Center in Agargaon, Khaleda Zia urged swift justice for the victims of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and murders, calling for a unified national effort to institutionalize a democratic system.
“We must create employment opportunities. We must ensure public safety. Above all, we must protect the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh at any cost,” she said. “The bloodshed of our heroes and the tears of mothers must not be in vain. We must preserve unity.”
Calling for national unity at all costs, she added, “For sixteen long years, the Awami League regime tried to destroy democracy and install a one-party system through brutal oppression, arrests, abductions, and killings. That fascist regime has now fallen to a people's uprising. A new opportunity has emerged to rebuild Bangladesh. We pay our deepest respects to those who were martyred. The nation will forever remember their sacrifice.”
BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman inaugurated the event virtually from London. He said, “An opportunity has arisen to build a better Bangladesh. Now is the time to establish a democratic, just, and accountable state based on the people's mandate. BNP seeks to ensure political empowerment for the people.”
Recalling his first remarks following the downfall of the fascist regime on August 5, 2024, he said, “I paid tribute to the mothers who lost their children in the uprising, to those who lost their beloved spouses and siblings. August 5 marked another victory for Bangladesh. The martyrs are not only your relatives—they are the pride of the nation and its freedom-seeking people. We honor them.”
Promising to reduce political corruption and criminalization, he added, “Just as the nation has not forgotten the freedom fighters of 1971, it will also remember the warriors of 2024. If BNP comes to power, we intend to name public structures after the martyrs. We aim to establish the country on a permanent foundation where all power resides in the people.”
The discussion event, titled “Uprising 2024: National Unity and the Democratic Journey,” featured remarks from BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as a special guest and was chaired by Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
BNP Standing Committee Members Mirza Abbas, Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed, and Zahid Hossain, among other senior central and metropolitan leaders, were also present.
Previously, Begum Khaleda Zia had not addressed the media or the public since February 8, 2018. After a long hiatus of six and a half years, she spoke virtually at a BNP rally in front of its Nayapaltan office on August 7, 2024. On February 27 this year, she also gave a virtual address at an extended party meeting.
