It was also a Saturday 34 years ago on May 30 when Khaleda Zia came to know she had become a widow. Her husband, military strongman and then president, Ziaur Rahman, had been assassinated in Chittagong earlier that morning.
This Saturday was no different from the last 20 days when Khaleda spent “confined” to her party office in Gulshan. But her habitually quiet afternoon was disrupted. Her two sisters-in-law, wives of her brothers Syeed Iskandar and Shamim Iskandar, came to visit her. They bore bad news.
Arafat Rahman Koko, the younger son of the three-time former prime minister who heads the BNP founded by Zia, died of cardiac arrest around 2:30pm yesterday in Malaysia. He was reportedly ill for long and collapsed on his way to the hospital.
Khaleda did not come out of her first floor chamber since hearing the news. She was not taking any visitors, said a senior policymaker of the party which leads the 20-party alliance.
“She is weeping,” said one. Another said the 69-year widow and mother of two had fallen ill.
This comes amid an indefinite blockade enforced by the BNP-led alliance demanding ouster of the “illegal ruling government.”
Khaleda last saw Koko in May 2013 in Singapore. Koko had been living abroad for the last seven years.
Following the political changeover of January 11, 2007, Khaleda and her sons – Tarique Rahman and Koko – were arrested on graft charges.
After their release on parole in 2008, Koko flew to Thailand for treatment with his family while Tarique to London. Later, Koko moved to Malaysia and had been staying there.
In 2011, Koko was sentenced to six years in prison for laundering money abroad during the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s tenure. He was also fined Tk19 crore.
Visitors from across party ranks started swarming to Khaleda’s office. Koko’s mother-in-law also visited Khaleda after hearing the news.
Koko’s janaza will be held today after Zohr prayers at Nagala Jama Mosque in Malaysia where he became a citizen.
Party insiders say Tarique will be attending the janaza. There is no word yet whether Khaleda will go to Malaysia too.
