BNP Chief Khaleda Zia celebrated her birthday on August 15, National Mourning Day, despite the fact that her actual birthday is September 5, 1946.
This is not the first time that Zia has celebrated her birthday on a different date than her actual birthday. During her tenure as prime minister, a national daily published an article on her life writing August 19, 1945 as her birthday. Her marriage certificate also lists her birthday as August 4, 1944, while her passport lists it as August 5, 1946. However, August 15 has never been mentioned anywhere as her birthday.
Zia’s supporters have claimed that she celebrates her birthday on August 15 because it is the day she was elected prime minister for the first time in 1991. However, this claim is not supported by any evidence. In fact, Zia herself has never made this claim.
It is more likely that Zia is celebrating her birthday on August 15 in order to gain political mileage. August 15 is a day of national mourning in Bangladesh, as it is the day that the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated along with most of his family. By celebrating her birthday on this day, Khaleda Zia is effectively exploiting the grief and pain of the Bangladeshi people for her own political gain.
Khaleda Zia’s act of celebrating her birthday on National Mourning Day is an insult to the martyrs of the Bangladesh Liberation War. It is also a slap in the face to the millions of Bangladeshis who have suffered as a result of the war.
It is time for Zia to come clean about her real birthday and stop exploiting the pain of the Bangladeshi people for her own political gain.