Khaleda Zia thanks Sheikh Hasina for sharing grief at son Coco’s death

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for expressing her sympathy at the sudden death of her younger son.

Arafat Rahman Coco died on way to hospital in Malaysia Saturday noon after suffering a cardiac arrest.

The BNP chief's Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told reporters Khaleda was thankful to the prime minister for sharing her grief.

But Hasina was turned away from the gate of the BNP chief's office in Gulshan late in the evening as it was locked from inside.

Flanked by senior Awami League leaders and ministers Tofail Ahmed and Amir Hossain Amu, Hasina waited in front of the office, where Khaleda has been living since Jan 3, for eight minutes.

Minutes after the news of Hasina going to visit Khaleda broke, the BNP chief's Special Assistant Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas told the media that doctors had put her on sedatives. She was feeling unwell and would not be able to meet the prime minister, he added.

Coco was sentenced to six years in jail in 2011 for smuggling money to Singapore between 2004 and 2006, when Khaleda was the prime minister. He was arrested on Sept 3, 2007 along with his mother from their cantonment home during the emergency rule.

He went to Thailand for medical treatment on July 17 next year after the military-run caretaker government released him on parole.

He then moved from Bangkok to Malaysia, Thailand’s ambassador in Dhaka had said in 2011.

Since then, Coco had been living in a rented house in Kuala Lumpur with his wife and two daughters.