Dhaka: BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia passed around an hour with her relatives on the Eid day on Wednesday.
Though her party leaders were barred from meeting her, only six relatives of the BNP chief entered the Old Dhaka Central Jail around 3:35 pm.
Khaleda's sister Selina Islam, her husband professor Rofiqul Islam, sister-in-law Nasrin Iskandar, daughter-in-law Sharmila Rahman and granddaughter Jahiya Rahman and Tarique Rahman’s sister-in-law Sahina Zaman Bindu met her.
They came out of the jail around 4:40 pm.
However, the jail authorities did not allow the visiting relatives of Khaleda Zai to take the food which they prepared for her.
Khaleda’s sister Selina Islam alleged that food wasn’t allowed inside the cell despite taking prior permission.
She said, “We brought with us home-made foods, but we weren’t allowed to take those in.”
She also said, Khaleda was expecting to see other members of the family and wanted to know their whereabouts.
“We told her that, only six were allowed to meet while we sought permission for 20.”
Wearing a cotton shari, Khaleda came to meet her relatives with the help of two jail guards, said jail sources.
Family members said, Khaleda caressed her granddaughter and exchanged Eid greetings with others.
Khaleda used to take her lunch by 1:30pm any other day, but she waited for her relatives to bring homemade food for her today, said jail sources.
The jail authorities offered Khaleda with vermicelli cooked with milk, some sweetmeats and Jarda rice in the morning, but she did not take the food.
Huge law enforcers remained deployed in and around the jail since the morning as BNP leaders earlier announced to go to the jail.
Earlier, senior BNP leaders, including standing committee members and vice chairmen, along with several hundred leaders and activists headed for the jail gate around 12 pm to meet Khaleda.
Police, however, obstructed them nearly half a kilometre away from the jail gate as they had no permission from the jail authorities to meet Khaleda.
After waiting for half an hour, the BNP leaders left the place failing to meet her.
On February 8, Khaleda Zia was sent to jail after a special court sentenced her to five years' rigorous imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
Khaleda has been staying at the jail with her domestic help Fatema Begum.
The BNP chief earlier celebrated eid twice in jail after her arrest by the army-backed caretaker government after the 1/11 political changeover in 2007.UNB
