Khaleda 'declines' to go to BSMMU

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia reportedly declined to go to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on Sunday for receiving treatment, reports UNB.

Jailer of Old Dhaka Central Jail Mahbubul Islam told journalists that the BNP chairperson refused to go to BSMMU for treatment though they had all the preparations to take her there.

Later, BSMMU Director Brig General Abdullah Al-Harun said, "Khaleda Zia was supposed to come here (BSMMU), but she's not coming. We're ready to receive her any time if she comes here."

Talking to reporters on the ground floor of BSMMU's Cabin Block around 1pm, he also said, "The jail authorities earlier informed us that Khaleda Zia will be brought here today, but now they told us Khaleda Zia is not being brought here today."

The BSMMU director said medical board members and the hospital authorities were ready to provide her treatment. "Cabins were prepared in this block (Cabin Block) for her. We would've provided her treatment had she come."

He hoped that Khaleda might come to their hospital some other day for treatment.

Abdullah Al-Harun said the members of the medical board formed by the government for Khaleda's treatment visited her inside the jail on February 28 last, and suggested conducting her follow-up health checkup.

On March 4, a high-profile BNP delegation, led by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, met Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to discuss Khaleda Zia's health condition and her treatment.

Later, the Home Minister said the BNP chief would be taken to BSMMU for ensuring her better treatment.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has been in jail since a special court convicted her in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on February 8 last year.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB), a pro-BNP doctors' body, said Khaleda Zia wants to receive treatment at United Hospital, not at the BSMMU.

"We've information that Khaleda Zia's health condition has seriously deteriorated, and she wants to have treatment at United Hospital since her personal physicians are there who had long been providing her treatment. We think it's not an unattainable desire of her," DAB convener Farhad Halim Donor told reporters at the BSMMU.

He claimed that the medical board members who visited Khaleda recently in jail suggested admitting her to the United Hospital as per her desire.

Farhad said Khaleda was brought to the BSUMMU twice earlier against her will, but she did not receive proper treatment there.

DAB's BSMMU unit president Prof Saiful Islam Selim said Khaleda is not willing to come to BSMMU as she was earlier taken back from the hospital twice without completing her treatment.

Mentioning that getting proper treatment is her basic and human right, Selim urged the government to admit Khaleda to the United Hospital immediately.