BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia attended the Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja in Dhaka Cantonment on Friday afternoon.

Khaleda Zia reached Senakunja around 4pm, where she was received by Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman and senior officials of the Armed Forces.

She left her Gulshan residence Firoza at 3:50pm, said BNP Standing Committee member and her personal physician Prof AZM Zahid Hossain.

The 81-year-old BNP chief, who has been suffering from multiple health complications, was permitted by her medical board to join the programme after reviewing her condition, party sources said.

Khaleda was accompanied in the same car by Syeda Shamila Rahman Sithi, wife of her late younger son Arafat Rahman Koko.

Prof Yunus pays tribute to Armed Forces martyrs 

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Prof Zahid Hossain travelled in her motorcade.

BNP Media Cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan said party Standing Committee members Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and Hafizuddin Ahmed also attended the reception.

The Armed Forces Division, under the Office of the Chief Adviser, earlier sent formal invitations to the BNP chairperson, Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, the Secretary General and senior leaders on the occasion of Armed Forces Day.

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus attended the reception as the chief guest.

Armed Forces Day is being observed today with various programmes, commemorating the formation of Bangladesh’s Army, Navy and Air Force during the 1971 Liberation War.

Khaleda Zia also attended the Armed Forces Day reception at Senakunja last year, marking her first appearance at the programme in 12 years.