Dhaka/New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will represent the Government and people of India at the funeral of Begum Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Tuesday.

Dr Jaishankar will visit Dhaka on December 31, 2025, to attend the funeral ceremonies of the veteran Bangladeshi leader, the MEA added.

Bangladesh’s first woman Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, who dominated the country’s politics for decades and played a key role in restoring democracy after years of military rule, died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 80.

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“My mother is no more,” Zia’s elder son and BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman said.

Zia was a three-time prime minister of Bangladesh and served for years as the chairperson of the BNP, one of the country’s two major political parties.

According to her personal physician, Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, Khaleda Zia “breathed her last early on Tuesday while receiving treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka.”

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Zia had been admitted to Evercare Hospital on November 23 after suffering from a lung infection. She had long been battling multiple health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, liver cirrhosis, and kidney complications. Earlier this month, she had been sent to London for advanced medical treatment for her ailments before returning to Dhaka.

Her family members, including her elder son Tarique Rahman, his wife Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter Zaima, were present at the hospital at the time of her death. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was also at the hospital.