Koko buried
Family, relatives, friends and BNP leaders and activists yesterday bade a tearful farewell to Arafat Rahman Koko.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The younger son of BNP chief Khaleda Zia was laid to rest at Banani graveyard last evening following his family's unsuccessful bid to bury him at the Army Graveyard.
Prior to this, thousands of mourners joined the namaz-e-janaza of Koko, who died of a cardiac arrest in Malaysia on Saturday, at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the afternoon. The body was flown back home in a Malaysia Airlines flight around 11:40am. A BNP delegation received the coffin at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Koko's widow Syeda Shamila Rahman, daughters Zafira Rahman and Zahiya Rahman, Khaleda's younger brother Shameem Iskandar and her adviser Mosaddek Ali Falu returned to Dhaka on the same flight.
The body was taken straight to Khaleda's Gulshan office, where she has been staying since January 3, around 1:30pm.
About 10 minutes later, the bereaved mother was helped down the stairs to the ground floor where Koko's coffin was kept.
The former premier burst into tears on seeing the motionless body of her son inside the coffin.
Flanked by close relatives, Special Assistant Shimul Biswas and Adviser Mosaddek Ali Falu, the septuagenarian mother was wailing inconsolably beside the coffin. The last time she met Koko was one and a half years ago in Singapore.
The office and its surrounding areas were packed with BNP leaders and activists during this time with verses from the Holy Quran being recited on loudspeakers.
At one point, Shimul Biswas all of sudden took the microphone and started lambasting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government for over half an hour, to the shock of mourners present there.
Around 2:45pm, Koko's coffin shrouded in a black piece of cloth embroidered with Quranic texts was put aboard a freezer van for taking it to the Baitul Mukarram Mosque.
Khaleda was holding the coffin while it was being taken to the van. Even after the coffin was put inside, she placed her hands on the doors of the van and kept shedding tears with intermittent muffled cries.
It took two good hours for the freezer-van to reach the national mosque due to a large number of BNP men escorting the car all the way.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including politicians, professionals and commoners, attended the janaza.
Rows of mourners could be seen from Paltan intersection to Janata Bank building at Motijheel and from GPO intersection to Gulistan roundabout with their hands up in the air praying for eternal peace of Koko's soul.
Khatib of the mosque Prof Mohammad Salahuddin conducted the janaza at 5:10pm. Before the funeral prayer, Khaleda's brother Shameem Iskandar urged people to forgive Koko if he had offended anyone.
Then the body was taken to Banani graveyard where he was buried at 6:10pm.
ROW OVER GRAVEYARD
Koko's family and the BNP yesterday claimed that they had sought permission for the burial at the army graveyard but they were "refused" due to "the government's naked interference."
Being a son of late president and army chief Ziaur Rahman, Koko deserved to be buried at the army graveyard, they argued, adding that no reason was shown to explain the refusal.
According to the policy of the use of the graveyard, any incumbent and retired army officer, their spouses, children, parents, and parents-in-laws can be buried there.
Sayrul Kabir, a staff of the BNP chief's media wing, said applications to this end were sent to the Cantonment Board office and "the [army] station headquarters concerned" on Monday.
Contacted, an official of the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) last night told The Daily Star that he would come up with a reply after "discussing the whole matter with the higher authorities".
When this correspondent again phoned him an hour later, the ISPR official only repeated the earlier statement.
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