Khaleda’s tearful adieu to Koko

A tearful Khaleda Zia scrambles over the lifeless body of her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko at her Gulshan office in the capital on Tuesday. Photo: BNP

Khaleda Zia burst into tears seeing her lifeless son Arafat Rahman Koko at her Gulshan office this afternoon.
Some family members and close aides were beside the BNP chief as she saw Koko for the first time their last meeting in Singapore one and half years back.
“She could not hold back her tears seeing the body of Koko,” one present there told The Daily Star. “She was crying her heart out.”
The body was taken to the first floor for viewing of Khaleda Zia around 1:55pm. There, Khaleda mourned over Koko’s coffin for around 30 minutes.

An ambulance carrying the body of Arafat Rahman Koko reaches office of his mother BNP chief Khaleda Zia at Gulshan in Dhaka Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Amran Hosssain

From there, the body was taken to Baitul Mukarram national mosque for a namaz-e-janaza post Asr prayers before burial at the Banani civil graveyard in Dhaka.
After Bangladesh Army denied its portion of the Banani graveyard for Koko’s burial, family and relatives decided to bury late president Ziaur Rahman’s son at the civil graveyard.

“Procedures are underway to bury Koko at the Banani civil graveyard,” Maj Gen Fazle Elahi Akbor, defense affairs adviser to the BNP chief, told The Daily Star around 2:30pm.
Koko’s body was flown in from Malaysia at 11:40pm and was taken straight to the Gulshan office of his mother for the last tributes of his mothers, friends, well-wishers and others.
The motorcade of Koko’s body left Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport through hangar gate 8 around 12:18pm. The body was carried in an ambulance.
Koko’s uncle and Khaleda’s younger brother Shameem Iskander brought the body back. Koko’s wife and two daughters also accompanied the body.
A five-man delegation of the BNP – its standing committee members Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice Chairman Abdullah Al Noman, and central leaders Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury and Kamal Ibne Yousuf – received the body at the airport.
Thousands of party leaders gathered at the Gulshan office of Khaleda Zia to pay their last respect for Koko, who never got directly involved into BNP’s party politics.
The body will be kept at the office for some time before being taken to national mosque Baitul Mukarram for a namaj-e-janaza after Asr prayers before burial.
Koko, who had been living in Malaysia on parole, died of heart failure at Kuala Lumpur around 1:30pm Saturday. He complained of chest pain around noon and died at his rented house there.