Overview
- BNP said she died around 6:00 am local time at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital after weeks in critical care for advanced liver cirrhosis and other chronic illnesses.
- The government announced three days of national mourning, with funeral prayers Wednesday at the Parliament’s South Plaza and burial with full state honours beside Ziaur Rahman at Zia Udyan.
- India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar plans to attend the rites, and regional leaders including Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif issued condolences.
- Her death follows the return from 17 years in exile of her son Tarique Rahman, widely viewed as the BNP’s frontrunner for the February 2026 polls.
- A two-time premier who helped restore parliamentary governance and championed the caretaker election mechanism, she was jailed on corruption charges in 2018, released in 2024 and acquitted in her final case in 2025.