Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is set to stage a showdown in the airport area to receive its chairperson Khaleda Zia who is scheduled to return home from Saudi Arabia on Thursday evening.

The party’s central office sources said the leaders and activists of BNP’s Dhaka city unit and its associate bodies have been directed to take position on both sides of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport road by 4:00pm to welcome Khaleda, reports UNB.

Contacted, BNP standing committee member and its Dhaka city unit convener Mirza Abbas said, ‘Our leaders and activists will throng the airport area tomorrow (Thursday) by 4:00pm to receive our chairperson as we do it whenever she returns home from abroad.’

‘We’ve taken all necessary preparations so that our leaders and activists can receive her by standing on both sides of the airport road in a disciplined manner,’ he added.

Khaleda along with her family members, including BNP senior vice chairman and her eldest son Tarique Rahman, will go to Dubai from Madina on Thursday morning by a flight of Emirates Airlines, said her adviser Enamul Haq Chowdhury who is on her entourage.

From Dubai, he said, the BNP chief will start her journey for home bidding farewell to her son, two daughters-in-law and granddaughter Ziama Rahman. Her family members will return to the UK.

Enamul said Khaleda is expected to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by the evening.

On September 7, the BNP chief along with her entourage left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a flight of Saudi Airlines while Tarique and his family members left London for Jeddah on the same day to perform hajj at the invitation of Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.