<div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>The BNP public rally demanding the unconditional release of its ailing Chairperson Khaleda Zia has begun in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office with the participation of thousands of leaders and activists of the party and its associate bodies.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rally formally began around 2:42 pm on Saturday with the recitation from the holy Quran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">BNP leaders and activists have started gathering before the party’s Nayapaltan central office with processions carrying banners, festoons, placards, and portraits of the party’s top leaders from different parts of Dhaka since morning braving bad weather to join the rally.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the associate bodies, former Jubo Dal General Secretary Abdul Monayem Munna staged a showdown by joining the rally with a big procession.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will address the program as the chief guest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additional police have been deployed in Nayapaltan and its surrounding areas to maintain law and order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier on Wednesday, BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam announced a three-day countrywide program demanding the unconditional release of Khaleda Zia, who is currently undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in the capital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As part of the programs, the party is holding the rally in front of its Nayapaltan central office today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides, the BNP leader said their party will hold rallies in all metropolitan cities on July 1 and in all district headquarters on July 3.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Khaleda Zia was rushed to Evercare Hospital in an ambulance at around 3:30 am on June 22 after suddenly falling ill at her Gulshan residence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A team of specialist doctors, led by Prof Shahabuddin Talukder, successfully implanted a pacemaker in her chest the following day. She is now receiving treatment in a cabin with CCU facilities at the hospital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On June 11, 2022, Khaleda Zia was diagnosed with three blockages in her heart, one of which was 95% blocked and was treated with stent placement at that time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Khaleda, a former prime minister, aged 79, has long battled various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since her conditional release from jail in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment frequently at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Jail after a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country. That has since been extended multiple times to keep her out of jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Khaleda's doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">On October 26 last year, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure known as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accretion in Khaleda Zia's stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.</div>