Dhaka (Web Desk): Former Bangladesh prime minister and key opposition party leader Khaleda Zia was released from jail on Tuesday.
On Monday, Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of jailed former premier Khaleda Zia, hours after her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India and the military took power.
According to a statement issued by the president’s press team, a meeting led by Shahabuddin had "decided unanimously to free Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia immediately".
Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, along with the head of the navy and airforce, and top leaders of several opposition parties including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami party, attended the meeting.
"The meeting has also decided to free all the people who have been arrested during the student protests," the statement added.
Earlier today, General Zaman said in a broadcast to the nation on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.
"The meeting decided to form an interim government immediately", it added.
Sheikh Hasina 76, had sought to quell nationwide protests against her government since early July but she fled the country after brutal unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people were killed.
As per the reports Begum Khaleda Zia, 78, is in poor health and confined to hospital after she was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.