Dhaka, 25 March – A Dhaka court on Sunday fixed April 25 to submit report over BNP Chairperson’s Khaleda Zia’s arrest in a case filed against her for celebrating “fake” birthday on August 15.Metropolitan Magistrate Khurshid Alam fixed the day as the report was not submitted for the Gulshan Police Station of the city on Sunday following the earlier order in this respect.
The August 15 is observed every year as National Mourning Day marking assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most members of his family in 1975.
Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka Md Mazharul Islam issued the arrest warrant in the case on November 17, 2016.
Earlier on August 30, 2016, Gazi Zahirul Islam, former joint general secretary of the Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ), filed the case with the court.
The complainant mentioned in his case statement that Khaleda Zia’s actual date of birth was not August 15 but she has been celebrating her birthday on that date every year to undermine and dishonour Bangabandhu.
He also submitted copies of Khaleda’s passport, marriage certificate and mark sheets of examinations taken prior to leaving school as well as a 1991 news report on her biography run by now defunct national daily the Dainik Bangla.
The former Prime Minister started the celebrations cutting cake at her Minto Road residence from 1996, when she stepped down from power. In the past couple of years, she had been doing so in the early hours at her Gulshan office. – Special Correspondent
