BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia – who is currently undergoing intensive treatment at Evercare Hospital – will leave the country for receiving advanced medical treatment in London after midnight or at dawn on Friday.

Khaleda’s personal physician Dr AZM Zahid Hossain confirmed the party’s decision at a press briefing held in front of the hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Khaleda will travel to London on an air ambulance provided by Qatar.

Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, is set to depart from London and reach Dhaka on Friday.

Earlier, the interim government called for special prayers in all mosques across the country on Friday after Jummah prayers. On Wednesday, BNP chairperson’s press wing said that Khaleda’s condition had not changed significantly in the past 24 hours and that doctors consider her condition “stable.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, UK specialist physician Richard Beale arrived in Dhaka to join the medical team treating Khaleda Zia.

On 23 November, Khaleda Zia was admitted to Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital in “critical” condition due to severe infections in her lungs and heart. She continues to receive treatment there for kidney complications, heart disease, and a new case of pneumonia. On 1 December, her party announced that her condition had worsened and she had been placed on ventilation support.

A medical board has been formed to oversee her treatment, consisting of both local and foreign doctors. One of the board members is Zubaida Rahman, and on Wednesday, two additional specialist teams from the United Kingdom and China joined the board chaired by Prof Dr Shahabuddin Talukder.