Hundreds of thousands mourn Bangladesh’s ex-prime minister at state funeral

Hundreds of thousands of people travelled from across Bangladesh to the capital Dhaka on Wednesday to pay their final respects to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Zia, who was the country’s first female prime minister, died on Tuesday from a prolonged illness. She was 80.

The mourners held out their hands in prayer and carried flags printed with her photographs as a motorcade carrying Zia’s body – including the hearse wrapped with the national flag – drove on streets near the parliament house.

Flags were flown at half-mast and thousands of security officers have been deployed.

“I have come this far just to say goodbye. I know I won’t be able to see her face, but at least I could see the [vehicle] carrying her for the last rites,” Setara Sultana, an activist from Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), told the BBC.

Sharmina Siraj, a mother of two, called Zia “an inspiration”, noting that stipends introduced by the former leader to improve women’s education made a “huge impact” on her daughters.

“It is difficult to imagine women in leadership positions anytime soon,” she told AFP news agency.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Lyonpo DN Dhungyel were among those who attended the funeral.

Earlier in the day, Zia’s body was taken to the house of her son Tarique Rahman, who was seen reciting the Quran beside his mother’s office.

The state funeral marks the end of Zia’s extraordinary journey, from a homemaker to the first female prime minister of Bangladesh.

Zia will be buried next to her husband Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981 while serving as president – an incident that thrusted Zia into political limelight.

She went on to lead the BNP in the country’s first elections in 20 years. She was dubbed an “uncompromising leader” after refusing to participate in a controversial election under military ruler General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in the 1980s.

For several years, along with her bitter political rival Sheikh Hasina, she fought for democracy and against military dictatorship, enduring arrests.

There was talk among Bangladesh’s rulers at the time to keep the two “battling begums” – Zia and Hasina – out of politics in what was then known as the “minus two formula”.

But Zia eventually became prime minister, first in 1991 then again in 2001.

During the time of the military-backed caretaker government in 2007, she was kept under detention.

In the last 16 years, under Hasnina’s Awami League government, Zia emerged as the most prominent symbol of resistance to Hasina’s rule which many saw as increasingly autocratic.

Zia’s resilience drew admiration from her supporters, who say that despite various personal and political setbacks, years in opposition and convictions under Hasina’s government, Zia never gave up, refused to compromise on her principles and stood her ground.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of people, including those who didn’t vote for her party, turned up for the funeral would be seen as a reflection of her popularity among the masses.

Those who worked with her recall a leader who asked probing questions while making key decisions. As economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya noted, she left a lasting impression as “a political leader who appreciated ideas and valued informed decision-making”.

In her later years, she suffered from multiple health problems. Despite this, the BNP said she had intended to run for parliament in February 2026, when the country will vote for the first time since a popular revolution last year unseated Hasina.

According to the party’s candidate list released earlier this month, Zia was to contest in three constituencies.

The party is eyeing a return to power, and if that happens, her son is expected to become the country’s new leader. Rahman, 60, had only returned to Bangladesh last week after 17 years in self-imposed exile in London.

“The country mourns the loss of a guiding presence that shaped its democratic aspirations,” Rahman said following his mother’s passing on Tuesday.