Dhaka: The 13th Jatiya Sangsad at its first session today unanimously adopted a condolence motion expressing profound grief over the death of former three-time Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. The first female prime minister of the country died on December 30, 2025, at the age of 80 at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka due to a prolonged illness, including advanced liver cirrhosis, heart, and lung complications.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the House also adopted the condolence motion at the death of former Indian Prime Minister and Congress leader Monmohon Singh, 86-year-old supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis. Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed moved the condolence motion at the outset of the first session of the 13th parliament held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
The parliament adopted the condolence motion due to the death of a former President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and other 31 former lawmakers. The deceased include former President and Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh’s former President Dr. AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, former BNP lawmaker Farhad Ahmed Chowdhury, former Workers Party lawmaker Shahidullah Shahid, and others. Additionally, the parliament expressed condolences over the death of senior system analyst Nusrat Sharmin Mouri, deputy director Mohammad Hasan, and other officials of the parliament secretariat.
Besides, condolences were expressed at the Jatiya Sangsad over the death of various notable personalities, including Chess Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman, singer Shafin Ahmed, and academician Syed Manjurul Islam. The Jatiya Sangsad expressed condolence on the fatalities from the Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crash at Uttara Milestone School and College. Moreover, the House expressed deep shock and prayed for the eternal peace of those who lost their lives in accidents at different places in the country and abroad.
Later, the obituary motion was unanimously adopted by the House, which prayed for the eternal peace of those deceased and observed one-minute silence and munajat as a mark of respect to the departed souls. Treasury Bench lawmaker and Religious Affairs Minister Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad conducted the munajat.
Earlier, a long discussion was held recalling the memory of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and the martyrs of the July uprising. The lawmakers, including LGRD Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and others, participated in the discussion. The motion included BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, and later, the House also included the names of Jamaat leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, and others in the list of the obituary motion.
The Speaker proposed including those killed in the 2013 Shapla Chattar crackdown and the 2009 Pilkhana massacre in the condolence motion. The condolence motion remembered those killed between 2007 and August 2024 in struggles for democracy, rule of law, justice, and human rights. It stated that many people had fallen victim to enforced disappearance, crimes against humanity, killings in the name of crossfire, torture, and mass arrests. The motion also paid tribute to those killed during the July 2024 uprising, including Abu Sayed and Mir Mahfuzur Rahman Mugdho, and remembered former BNP lawmaker Ilias Ali, who became a victim of enforced disappearance.