Khaleda office fortified as Hasina decides to meet her

The political office of Khaleda Zia at Gulshan has been fortified after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decided to meet the grieving BNP chief who lost her youngest son earlier in the day.

The prime minister was supposed to leave from Ganabhaban around 8pm Saturday.

bdnews24.com’s Chief Political Correspondent Sumon Mahmud from the scene said members of different security agencies including Special Security Force (SSF) and President Guard Regiment (PGR) were seen taking positions in the area before the prime minister’s arrival.

The BNP chief’s youngest son died of heart failure in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur earlier in the day.

The 45-year-old was being taken to a hospital when he collapsed on the way, Khaleda’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told bdnews24.com.

Coco has been staying in Kuala Lumpur since 2011 with his wife and two daughters.

He had moved to Malaysia from Bangkok where he had gone in July 2008 for treatment after the then military-backed caretaker government had paroled him.

Coco was arrested along with his mother on Sept 3, 2007 during the state of emergency.

He was also sentenced to six years in prison and fined Tk 190 million in June 2011 for laundering money to Singapore between 2004 and 2006.

The BNP, however, maintained that the case was politically motivated.