BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s youngest son Arafat Rahman Koko died in Malaysia yesterday from a massive cardiac arrest.
BNP Standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman told media that Koko, 44, died around 12:30pm Malaysia time when he was on his way to the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur from his residence.
Shamsuddin Didar, an official of Khaleda Zia’s press wing, told the Dhaka Tribune that Koko’s janaza will be held today after Zohr prayers at the Malaysian national mosque Masjid Negara in capital Kuala Lumpur.
Former lawmaker and BNP leader ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan said Koko’s body has been kept in the mortuary of the University of Malaya.
Koko has been living in a rented house as a citizen in Ampang in Kuala Lumpur with his wife Shamila Rahman Sithi and daughters Zafia Rahman and Zahira Rahman. However, there is no word yet whether Khaleda Zia, who last met her youngest son in Singapore in 2013, will travel to Malaysia.
Replying to a query at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office last evening, BNP standing committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah said: “Tarique Rahman [Koko’s elder brother] is trying to go to Malaysia from London. After he arrives there, a decision about bringing Koko’s body will be made.”
However, later in the night, a BNP insider said Tarique Rahman is not going to Malaysia; instead he will attend a gayebana janaza in East London.
Koko left Bangladesh in July 2008 for Thailand’s Bangkok for treatment, later moved to Malaysia and has never come back to Bangladesh since.
Following the 1/11 political changeover in 2007, Khaleda and her sons – Tarique and Koko – were arrested on graft charges.
Koko was arrested along with his mother Khaleda Zia on September 3, 2007, months after the army-backed caretaker government assumed office.
He was sentenced to six years in prison and fined Tk19 lakh on charges of siphoning off money to Singapore between 2004 and 2006 when his mother was the prime minister.
In 2009, the Awami League-led government assumed office and decided not to extend his parole further.
Because Koko defied summons, he was a fugitive in the eyes of justice and it meant that he was not eligible to appeal. BNP says the case against Koko was politically motivated.
After the BNP-Jamaat-led government came to power in 2001, Koko was made an adviser to Bangladesh Cricket Board. There are allegations that Koko and company used their political muscles to get the positions.
