DHAKA: Bangladesh’s former prime minister Khaleda Zia remains in “very critical” condition at a Dhaka hospital, her party said on Sunday, as her self-exiled son and acting party chief Tarique Rahman signaled uncertainty over his return.
Khaleda, 80, who is the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was admitted to a private hospital on November 23 with a severe chest infection affecting her heart and lungs, doctors and senior party officials said.
Her party has regained prominence after Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s long-serving former prime minister, was ousted in a student-led uprising last year.
Rahman, who has lived in London since 2008, wrote on Facebook on Saturday that his return to Bangladesh was “not entirely” in his control, fueling speculation over political or legal hurdles.
The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus later said it had “no restrictions or objections” to his return.
“There are no obstacles in this matter,” Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam said in a Facebook post.
The interim government will issue a travel pass within a day if Rahman wishes to return to Bangladesh, de facto Foreign Minister Touhid Hossain said on Sunday.
Rahman has been acquitted in all the cases against him since Hasina’s ouster in August last year, effectively removing the legal barriers that once complicated his return.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which boycotted disputed elections in 2014 and 2024, has gained momentum since last August and is seen as a frontrunner in Bangladesh’s shifting political landscape.
Bangladesh’s ex-PM Khaleda in critical condition, exiled son says his return not in his hands
https://arab.news/66f7c
Bangladesh’s ex-PM Khaleda in critical condition, exiled son says his return not in his hands
- Khaleda, 80, was admitted to a private hospital on November 23 with a severe chest infection affecting her heart and lungs
Philippines says China fired flares toward its patrol plane in the disputed South China Sea
- “The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard
- The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi
MANILA: Chinese forces fired three flares from an island toward a Philippine plane undertaking a routine patrol Saturday in the disputed South China Sea, but the incident did not cause any problem and the aircraft proceeded with its surveillance mission, the Philippine coast guard said.
It was not immediately clear how far the flares that Filipino officials said were fired from the Chinese-occupied Subi Reef were from the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft of the Philippine fisheries bureau.
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, Beijing has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, and has vowed to staunchly defend its sovereignty. Chinese forces has fired flares from its occupied islands and from its aircraft as a warning for foreign planes to move away from what it calls its airspace in the disputed waters.
“The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard, which carried out Saturday’s surveillance flight with the fisheries agency.
“These flights aim to monitor the marine environment, assess the status of fisheries resources and ensure the safety and welfare of Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea,” the coast guard said, using the Philippine name for the stretch of the South China Sea that Manila claims.
The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi, the Philippine coast guard said.
Subi is one of seven disputed and mostly submerged reefs which China turned more than a decade ago into what are now island bases in the Spratlys, the most hotly disputed region of the South China Sea. The artificial islands are protected by a missile system and three of them have military-grade runways, according to US and Philippine security officials.
Aside from Subi, the Philippine patrol plane flew near six other disputed islands, reefs and atolls, including Sabina, an uninhabited disputed shoal, where it monitored a Chinese navy ship. “This vessel repeatedly issued radio challenges against the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft while it was flying well within Philippine sovereign rights,” the Philippine coast guard said.
“All safe and mission accomplished,” Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coast guard said of Saturday’s surveillance flight.
The United States has no territorial claims in the sea passage but has patrolled the waters for decades and repeatedly warned it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-seething disputes in the resource-rich waters.
