Khaleda Zia

Dhaka, June 22 (PTI): Tarique Rahman, the detained elder son of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, needs treatment abroad as his spinal cord is “broken”, doctors treating him said today.

“Rahman’s condition has deteriorated as his broken spinal cord was causing acute pain in his waist and neck,” Rahman’s physician Yunus of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, where he is being treated under custody, was quoted as saying by Channel i.

Rahman, in his 40s, is considered Zia’s heir apparent and was arrested in march last year under the military-backed government’ massive anti-graft drive. He is being tried for several corruption and criminal cases.

Yunus’s statement came a week after Zia, who is also under detention since September along with her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, blamed the interim government in Emergency-ruled Bangladesh of worsening the health conditions of her two sons.

“When they (her sons) were arrested, they were in good health, they walked down to courts. Now they can’t and the government is responsible for this,” the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader told reporters after she appeared before a special court.

The former premier demanded immediate release of her two sons and their treatment abroad.

Rahman’s lawyer Rafiqul Islam Miah had also alleged that his client was “badly tortured” during interrogations and faced the risk of being crippled permanently.

Senior government officials had said processes were underway for the release of Zia and her sons for necessary treatment if required abroad “on humanitarian grounds”.