Bangladesh's first female prime minister Khaleda Zia has died following a prolonged illness, her political party has said.

Ms Zia led the country as head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 1991 to 1996, and again from 2001 to 2006.

During her years in and out of power, the nation's politics came to be defined by her bitter feud with rival Sheikh Hasina.

The two women alternated between government and opposition - and Ms Zia served time in prison over corruption charges, but was acquitted earlier this year.

Image: Pic: AP Photo/Saurabh Das 2008

The BNP announced her death in posts shared on social media on Tuesday.

She had been suffering from ill health in recent years, including advanced cirrhosis of the liver, arthritis, diabetes, and chest and heart problems, doctors said.

At the beginning of 2025 she travelled to London for medical treatment, staying for four months before returning home.

Before her career in politics, Ms Zia was a wife and mother devoted to raising ‍her two sons, until her husband, military leader and then president Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in an attempted army coup in 1981.

She became head of the BNP, founded by her husband, three years later, and vowed to deliver on his aim of "liberating Bangladesh from poverty and economic backwardness".

Image: Sheikh Hasina, pictured in 2019, followed Ms Zia as prime minister. File pic: AP

At the time, both she and Ms Hasina led a popular uprising for democracy that toppled military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990.

The following year, Bangladesh held what was hailed as the country's first free election - with Ms Zia winning a surprise victory over Ms Hasina, becoming the country's first female prime minister, and years of bitter rivalry beginning.

In 2018, when Ms Hasina was in power, Ms Zia and aides were convicted of stealing some $250,000 in foreign donations ​received by an orphanage trust set up during her second term as prime minister.

She was jailed but moved to house arrest on humanitarian grounds in March 2020, as her health deteriorated.

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Ms Hasina, who led the country from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024, was ousted in a mass uprising and fled the country in August 2024 - and Ms Zia was freed from house arrest.

Earlier this year, she was acquitted by Bangladesh's Supreme Court.

Though Ms Zia had been out of power for almost 20 years, she and her party continued to command much support.

The BNP is ⁠seen as the frontrunner to win the next parliamentary election set to take place in February - and her eldest son and acting chairman of the party, Tarique Rahman, 60, is widely seen as a strong candidate to become ​prime minister.