Bangladesh bids farewell on Wednesday to former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a state funeral drawing vast crowds, mourning a towering leader whose career defined politics for decades.<\/p>\n
Zia, the first woman to serve as prime minister in the South Asian nation of 170 million people, died on Tuesday aged 80.<\/p>\n
Flags were flown at half-mast, and thousands of security officers lined the streets as her body was carried through the streets of the capital Dhaka in a vehicle in the colours of the national flag.<\/p>\n
Retired government official Minhaz Uddin, 70, said he had never voted for her, but came to honour the three-time prime minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here with my grandson, just to say goodbye to a veteran politician whose contributions will always be remembered,\u201d he said, watching from behind a barbed wire barricade as her body passed by.<\/p>\n
\u201cKhaleda Zia has been an inspiration,\u201d mourner Sharmina Siraj told AFP, adding that \u201cit is difficult to imagine women in leadership positions anytime soon\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old mother of two said stipends introduced by Zia to support girls\u2019 education \u201chad a huge impact on the lives of our girls\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Legacy lives on\u2019
\nDespite years of ill health and imprisonment, Zia had vowed to campaign in elections set for 12 February \u2014 the first vote since a mass uprising toppled her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina last year.<\/p>\n
Zia\u2019s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is widely seen as a frontrunner, and her son Tarique Rahman, 60, who returned only last week after 17 years in exile, is seen as a potential prime minister if they win a majority.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is no more, but her legacy lives on \u2014 and so does the BNP,\u201d said Jenny Parvez, 37, who travelled for several hours with her family to watch the funeral cortege pass her on the street.<\/p>\n
The interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, declared three days of national mourning and an elaborate state funeral.<\/p>\n
Large crowds gathered outside parliament \u2014 many waving national or BNP flags \u2014 where her coffin is expected around 2:00pm (0800 GMT), and when prayers will begin.<\/p>\n
Yunus said Bangladesh had \u201clost a great guardian\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zia\u2019s body will be interred alongside her late husband, Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981 during his time as president.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq will represent Pakistan at Zia\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh bids farewell on Wednesday to former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a state funeral drawing vast crowds, mourning a towering leader whose career defined politics for decades. Zia, the first woman to serve as prime minister in the South Asian nation of 170 million people, died on Tuesday aged 80. Flags were flown at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14774,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14772\/revisions\/14774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}