An era laid to rest

Bangladesh stands still as a massive state farewell marks the end of a stoic political matriarch, Khaleda Zia, amid high tributes from home and abroad.
In scenes of a rare national unanimity, the vast vacant parliament premises in Dhaka turned an overflowing human sea Wednesday during her funerals rated one of the largest in global history, with foreign dignitaries and mission chiefs joining umpteen mourners in the last rites.
The sprawling capital city of Bangladesh came to a standstill as the nation paid its final tribute to a leader who had undergone stoic endurance since the country's Liberation War till the end and shaped national politics on democratic lines for decades.
By late afternoon, the winter light over Dhaka had taken on a muted, almost reverential quality, as though the city itself paused to take a breath. From hospital gates to Parliament's broad southern plaza, Bangladesh moved slowly, deliberately, in grief.
A nation long accustomed to political turbulence found itself united, if briefly, by a single, irreversible fact: Begum Khaleda Zia was being laid to rest.
The coffin, draped in the red-green national flag, arrived shortly after noon on a freezer van under tight security -- a reminder both of state protocol and of an extraordinary public response her death evoked.
At 2:25pm the coffin was taken to the funeral-prayer ground, where tens of thousands -- perhaps more -- stood shoulder to shoulder for the namaz-e-janaza. The prayer began at 3:03pm and ended just two minutes later, but the silence that followed felt longer, heavier, broken only by sobs rising from the crowds.
Attended by top government and political leaders and foreign dignitaries, among others, the prayer session was led by Mufti Mohammad Abdul Malek, Khatib of the National Mosque Baitul Mukarram, following a readout on elegy from Zia's party-Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP.
From early morning, massive crowds had assembled across Dhaka. "Roads and open spaces stretching far beyond the National Parliament area were filled with mourners. People joined the janaza from Karwan Bazar to the Parliament, Asad Gate to Mohammadpur Town Hall, Agargaon Metro Station to Shyamoli, and Asad Gate to Kalabagan," says a firsthand account of the funerals.
An estimated nearly 10 million people attended the last rites to the thrice-ruling former Bangladesh prime minister and widow of slain ex-president and Liberation War veteran Ziaur Rahman, making it one of the largest public gatherings in the country's history.
Chief Adviser of the post-uprising interim government Prof Muhammad Yunus and members of the Advisory Council and BNP leader Tarique Rahman as well as politicians cutting across political lines attended the state funerals.
Diplomats also attended in significant numbers. At least 32 ambassadors, high commissioners and representatives of international organisations joined the prayer.
Foreign ministers of India, Nepal and Bhutan and the Speaker of the Pakistan Parliament also took part in the funeral programme.
Before the prayer, Khaleda Zia's elder son and Acting Chairman of BNP Tarique Rahman arrived at the venue and requested everyone to pray for his mother.
"Please pray that Almighty Allah grants her a place in Jannah, and I seek forgiveness on behalf of her if any of you was hurt by any of her behaviour," Tarique says, his voice steady but subdued.
Standing Committee member of BNP Nazrul Islam Khan also spoke briefly, and read out a citation from the party depicting her charismatic and intrepid political career and an abject suffering in final years unto grave at the hands of the past "fascist" regime.
He also mentioned that according to the physicians, the torture inflicted upon her by the ousted former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, worsened Khaleda's health condition.
The country's top military leadership was present, including Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Navy Chief Rear Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hasan and Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan.
Leaders of various political parties also joined the funeral function, staged before her burial beside her husband nearby.
Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar and National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam were among those present.
Instead of being taken to her long-time residence 'Firoza', the body was brought to House No 196 on Gulshan Avenue, the residence of Tarique Rahman.
There, her political successor recited verses from the Holy Quran beside his mother's coffin as family members and relatives paid their last respects.
At 11:05 am, the body was taken in a convoy to the janaza venue at the South Plaza of the National Parliament.
Tarique Rahman, his wife Zubaida Rahman, daughter Zaima Rahman, and other family members accompanied her on her last ride away from home.
The funeral prayers over, the coffin was placed on a flower-laden carriage and taken to Zia Udyan, on the northern side of the parliament complex. At 4:30pm, under full state honours, Khaleda was buried beside her husband, former president Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981.
The symmetry was not lost on mourners: a political partnership forged through tragedy reunited in death, their graves now forming part of the country's living political memory.
Her burial was heralded by a guard of honour.
Khaleda Zia died on Tuesday morning at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka after a long battle with multiple illnesses. She was 80. Her death closed a chapter that spanned nearly half a century of Bangladesh's turbulent political life-one marked by confrontation, resilience, imprisonment, exile and, above all, endurance.
To her supporters, Khaleda Zia was an "uncompromising leader," a politician who refused to bow to autocracy and who paid a heavy personal price for her convictions.
To critics, she was inflexible, emblematic of a polarised political culture. Yet even her detractors rarely disputed her centrality. In her later years, weakened by illness and constrained by legal cases and imprisonment, she remained a potent symbol for her party and a figure around whom political hopes continued to gather.
That symbolism was evident in the crowds that filled Dhaka on Wednesday. From early morning, people streamed into the city from across the country. By mid-afternoon, areas far beyond Manik Mia Avenue-Bijoy Sarani, Khamarbari, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Shahbagh and Mohammadpur-were choked with people.
Law-enforcement agencies struggled to manage the scale of the gathering, though the mood remained largely orderly, driven by purpose rather than agitation.
Many mourners spoke not of politics but of gratitude. "We didn't come for slogans or processions," says Abu Bakar, a farmer who had travelled overnight from Subarnachar in Noakhali with several acquaintances.
"We just want to pay our final respects. If we can stand in the janaza prayer, our journey is worthwhile."
Ismail Hossain, a veteran grassroots party worker from Rajshahi, says Khaleda Zia's death felt like "a protective shadow has been lifted from over our heads". Despite the biting winter cold, he said, he had come only to pray for her.
Across the country, the day unfolded as a collective act of mourning. Shops closed early. Offices fell quiet. The national flag flew at half-mast. In mosques, special prayers were offered; in temples and churches, silent invocations followed different traditions towards the same end.
For many, the funeral was watched on television, a mediated yet intimate ritual that brought the procession into living rooms far from Dhaka.
There was symbolism even in the weather. After days of harsh cold, a gentle winter sun broke through the haze, offering some comfort to the mourners who stood for hours in the open.
"Even nature is saying goodbye," one woman murmurs, shielding her eyes from the light as the coffin passed.
In the end, grief does not rewrite history -- it reframes it. On Wednesday, Bangladesh did not merely bury a former prime minister. It laid to rest an era defined by conviction, conflict and an unyielding belief in democratic struggle.
As earth closed over Khaleda Zia's grave beside her husband's, the country paused -- long enough to remember, long enough to mourn, and long enough to say goodbye.
Throughout the day, mourners wearing black clothes and badges, many carrying party flags, gathered at Manik Mia Avenue to honour the late leader.
To ensure security, law-enforcement agencies tightened measures around Evercare Hospital, the National Parliament, and burial-place Zia Udyan. Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), along with the army, police, RAB, and other forces, were deployed from the night before.
The funeral of Begum Khaleda Zia marked a historic moment, reflecting her enduring influence and the deep emotional bond she shared with millions of Bangladeshis.

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