Tight security at airport

Security at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has been heightened ahead of the arrival of Arafat Rahman Coco’s body.

People including airport employees are being thoroughly searched at airport entry points.

Several levels of security fences have been set up, while additional police, RAB and Ansar personnel have been deployed at the airport on Tuesday.

Police and RAB have not issued any official statement though.

But a policeman, on condition of anonymity, said the extra security was to prevent disorder before or after the arrival of the body of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s younger son.

The Malaysia Airlines flight left Kuala Lumpur at 8am, said Mahbub Alam Shah, a BNP activist based in that country.

The body is expected to arrive around midday.

Coco’s wife, two daughters, uncle Shamim Eskander and senior Khaleda Zia aide Mosaddek Ali Falu are among those on the same flight to Dhaka.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s younger son, Arafat Rahman Coco, carrying a six-year jail term on his head for smuggling millions of taka out of the country, died on Saturday due to cardiac failure in a Malaysia hospital.

According to the BNP leaders, Coco's body will be taken to Khaleda’s Gulshan office from the airport.

It will be kept there for three hours so that people can pay their respects before being taken to the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque for the Janaza.

He will be then buried at the military graveyard in the capital's Banani.

The BNP had been mourning Coco’s death for the past three days. The party flag was flown at half-mast, while black flags were hoisted at the BNP headquarters. The leaders had been wearing black badges as a mark of respect.

Prayers and Quran-khwani, too, were held at mosques across the country.