Although the death of President Zillur Rahman did bring Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia under the same roof of Bangabhaban on Thursday, where both paid respects to the late leader, they refrained from meeting or talking to each other.
The 84-year-old President breathed his last at a Singapore hospital on Wednesday where he was flown on Mar 10 for treatment.
Rahman’s body reached Bangladesh on Thursday noon and was taken to the Bangabhaban.
The Prime Minister and Acting President Abdul Hamid paid their respects first. Within half an hour, Khaleda Zia showed up with her party leaders to pay respects to the great leader.
bdnews24.com’s Sumon Mahbub from the Bangabhaban said amid an air of gloom, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was speaking to several diplomats when the BNP Chairperson placed floral wreathes on the coffin of President Rahman.
“After paying respects, Khaleda Zia started towards the Prime Minister but suddenly changed her direction,” he said.
Hasina was wearing a black and white saree and the BNP chief a pink one.
Khaleda later spoke to the late President’s son Nazmul Hassan MP and other members of the family and consoled them, signed the mourning register kept at the Bangabhaban and left.
With only nine months remaining ahead of the next parliamentary election, demands have been made from different platforms of the society for a political dialogue between chiefs of the two rival parties to resolve the political crisis and determine the next electoral system.
Voicing concern over the growing violence in the country, diplomats and businesses have also called upon the top leaders of the two major political parties to shun the confrontational path to start dialogue.
Meanwhile, a writ petition has been filed in the High Court seeking direction to the Awami League President and the BNP Chairperson to sit for a dialogue to resolve the ongoing political standoff.
Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam recently said the government was ready to sit with the opposition at any place – in or outside Parliament – for talks but said it must be ‘unconditional’.
But Khaleda later dismissed the chances of holding talks with what she termed a ‘killer government’ and called for its ouster.
Though generally Hasina and Khaleda do not attend any function together, they have come close to each other at the Armed Forces Day function at Sena Kunja in Dhaka Cantonment twice in as many years but did not even make an eye contact, indicating an inexorable political standoff as yet.
The last time the two leading ladies of Bangladesh politics were under the same roof was during last year’s Armed Forces Day on Nov 21. But they neither met nor spoke. In 2009, Hasina and Khaleda met and exchanged greetings on the same occasion.
Khaleda went to Sudha Sadan, in May that year after the death of Hasina’s husband, Dr Wajed Mia. She offered condolences and had a chat.
Source: bdnews24