BNP hold doa mahfil marking Khaleda’s ‘birthday on Aug 15’

Kabir Humayun: BNP will hold doa mahfil across the country on August 15 marking the ‘74th birthday’ of its chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, party’s senior joint secretary general, made the announcement at a programme at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office yesterday, reports UNB.
Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal arranged the programme marking Khaleda’s late son Arafat Rahman Koko’s birth anniversary.
Rizvi said BNP will arrange doa mahfil in all upazilas and districts across the country on August 15 to pray for her recovery from illness and release from jail.
Khaleda was born in 1945. But, there are controversies about her actual date of birth and even the birth year.
Though various records suggest Khaleda Zia was born in 1945, her party claimed in 2015 that her actual birth year is 1946. She also registered her birth year 1946 in her new passport.
Khaleda has been in Old Dhaka central jail since she was convicted in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case by a lower court on February 8.
Meanwhile, the nation is set to observe the National Mourning Day on August 15 commemorating the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
Awami League leaders have long been claiming that her birthday is September 5, 1945 as per her marriage certificate while August 19, 1946 as per her first passport. Khaleda herself put the date as August 9, 1944 while registering for her matriculation exams, they said.