Hundreds of thousands of people travelled from across Bangladesh to the capital Dhaka on Wednesday to pay their final respects to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Zia, who was the country’s first female prime minister, died on Tuesday from a prolonged illness. She was 80.
The mourners held out their hands in prayer and carried flags printed with her photographs as a motorcade carrying Zia’s body – including the hearse wrapped with the national flag – drove on streets near the parliament house.
Flags were flown at half-mast and thousands of security officers have been deployed.
“I have come this far just to say goodbye. I know I won’t be able to see her face, but at least I could see the [vehicle] carrying her for the last rites,” Setara Sultana, an activist from Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), told the BBC.
Sharmina Siraj, a mother of two, called Zia “an inspiration”, noting that stipends introduced by the former leader to improve women’s education made a “huge impact” on her daughters.
“It is difficult to imagine women in leadership positions anytime soon,” she told AFP news agency.
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Lyonpo DN Dhungyel were among those who attended the funeral.
Earlier in the day, Zia’s body was taken to the house of her son Tarique Rahman, who was seen reciting the Quran beside his mother’s office.
Zia will be buried next to her husband Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981 while serving as president – an incident that thrusted Zia into political limelight.
She went on to lead the BNP in the country’s first elections in 20 years. She was dubbed an “uncompromising leader” after refusing to participate in a controversial election under military ruler General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in the 1980s.
Her career, which included spells in prison and house arrest, was defined by a bitter feud with her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina.
Over the past 16 years, under Hasina’s Awami League government, Zia emerged as the most prominent symbol of resistance to Hasina’s rule many saw as increasingly autocratic.
Despite Zia’s illness, the BNP said she had intended to run for parliament in February, when the country will vote for the first time since a popular revolution last year unseated Hasina.
According to the party’s candidate list released earlier this month, Zia was to contest in three constituencies.
The party is eyeing a return to power, and if that happens, Zia’s son Tarique Rahman is expected to become the country’s new leader. Rahman, 60, had only returned to Bangladesh last week after 17 years in self-imposed exile in London.
“The country mourns the loss of a guiding presence that shaped its democratic aspirations,” Rahman said following his mother’s passing on Tuesday.
