Coco was harassed because he was Zia’s son: Khaleda

Arafat Rahman Coco was made to suffer in his lifetime for being a member of the Zia family, his mother Khaleda Zia has said.

She made the allegation in a statement issued on Wednesday, a day after Coco was buried in Dhaka.

The BNP chairperson also thanked everyone for the sympathy they showered her with on the loss of her son and said it ‘touched her’.

The former prime minister and widow of Bangladesh’s first military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman urged everyone to pray for the peace of their son’s soul.

Coco was sentenced by a court to a six-year jail term in 2011 for smuggling millions of taka out of Bangladesh.

He died last Saturday due to cardiac failure in Kuala Lumpur, having been living in self-exile in Thailand and Malaysia since 2008.

His body was brought to Dhaka on Tuesday and laid to rest in the evening at Banani graveyard.

Khaleda in the statement said Coco, despite coming from a political family, had stayed away from politics. He had attached himself to sports, she said.

“It is unfortunate that he had to face all sorts of torture, harassment and propaganda only because he was a member of the Zia family.

“He was not spared from extreme hostility even after being under treatment for illness abroad,” she said.

Coco, arrested during the 2007 emergency, along with his wife and two daughters went to Thailand for medical treatment the following year after he had been released on parole.

He was tried in absentia and did not challenge his conviction in the higher court being a fugitive from justice.

As his elder brother Tarique Rahman chose to carry the family's political legacy forward, Coco became Bangladesh Cricket Board's Development Committee chief in 2001, when his mother was the prime minister, removing BCB chief Saber Hossain Chowdhury.

Khaleda in the statement said, “It is so unfortunate that I, a mother, had not been given a chance to see my ailing child for around eight years.

“Instead,” she added, “I had to receive his dead body.”

It was the first statement of the BNP chief, sent by her Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, after the news of Coco's death.

Citing the ‘record’ number of people who attended Coco’s Namaz-e-Janazas held at home and abroad, Khaleda said she was deeply moved.

“The participation from all walks of life in the country will help me gather the strength to overcome the sorrow,” she said.

She thanked the people of the country for the special prayers and Gayebana Janaza held for Coco at different districts and Upazilas.

The former prime minister also expressed gratitude to the foreign diplomats who had consoled her at the time of bereavement.