BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday said their party Chairperson Khaleda Zia's physical condition is now 'slightly better' but she remains at 'risk' due to chronic disease.

“Madam (Khaleda) is  slightly better after coming back from the hospital. The problems she had before have relieved. She now feels better,” he said.

A day after his meeting with Khaleda, Fakhrul made the remarks while talking to reporters at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office.

He said their party chief has long been suffering from various critical diseases, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis and cardiac problems and there is no possibility of being cured these complications.

“That’s why, her doctors and medical board have been repeatedly saying that a she needs to be treated in a specialised hospital abroad. That is not happening. So, she’s at health risk.”

On Sunday night, Fakhrul met Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence and inquired about her health condition.

Earlier on June 17, the BNP Chairperson returned to her Gulshan home from Evercare Hospital after undergoing various medical tests and receiving treatment for four days.

Khaleda, 78, has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart and eye problems. Since her conditional release in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.

Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she will stay in her Gulshan house and will not leave the country.