Huge crowds for Khaleda funeral as Bangladesh bids farewell to ex-leader

Mourners surround Bangladesh’s parliament in Dhaka to pay their respects to the country’s first female prime minister.Published On 31 Dec 2025Vast crowds have gathered in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for the state funeral of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, with mourners travelling from across the country to bid farewell to a towering political leader.Footage showed huge crowds streaming in towards the national parliament building on Manik Mia Avenue, where her coffin, draped in the national flag, was taken in a convoy on Wednesday.Hundreds of thousands of her supporters, along with dignitaries from India and Pakistan, were expected to attend, with about 10,000 security personnel lining the streets to maintain order, officials said.Khaleda, the first woman to serve as prime minister in the South Asian nation when she became premier in 1991, died on Tuesday aged 79, after a prolonged illness.Bangladesh has declared three days of state mourning, while tributes have flowed from world leaders as mourners farewell a politician viewed as a figurehead of the country’s democratic movement.‘An entire nation is grieving’Reporting from outside parliament in Dhaka, Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury said emotions were high among the huge crowds gathered for the state funeral.“Many people are weeping,” he said.“People were coming from all across the country to gather here. They said we have to come … to show that she will be missed.”Mourners had described her as “a great leader for this country”, saying she had “shown us the way to democracy”, he said.“An entire nation is grieving,” he added.One mourner, Sharmina Siraj, told the AFP news agency that Zia was “an inspiration”, saying it was “difficult to imagine women in leadership positions anytime soon”.