Khaleda breaks down after hearing about Coco

Khaleda Zia was in her room on the first floor of her Gulshan office, reading a newspaper after the BNP-led coalition called a nationwide 36-hour shutdown, when she learnt of her son's death.

It was around 2:30pm on Saturday when Nasrin Sayeed and Kaniz Fatema, wives of her two brothers, late Sayeed Eskandar and Shamim Eskandar, told her about the youngest son Arafat Rahman Coco’s death in Malaysia.

Officials at her office said Khaleda wept silently after hearing the news. She could not speak.

Then a phone call came form London, where her elder son Tarique Rahman lives.

The BNP chief has been staying in her office since Jan 3 and called a countrywide transport blockade on Jan 5 which has been followed by a series of shutdowns.

Coco, convicted of smuggling money abroad, died of heart failure around Saturday noon Bangladesh time. He was 45.

Coco was arrested along with his mother on Sept 3, 2007 during the state of emergency. He went to Thailand for treatment next year after the military-run caretaker government paroled him.

He moved from Bangkok to Malaysia, Thailand’s ambassador to Bangladesh had told journalists in 2011.

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

On June 23, 2011, he was also sentenced to six years in prison and fined Tk 190 million for smuggling money to Singapore between 2004 and 2006, when Khaleda was the prime minister.

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

Khaleda had met Coco in Bangkok on her way to the US in June 2013. It was Coco’s last meeting with his mother.

The BNP chief’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told bdnews24.com Saturday afternoon that no decision regarding Coco’s burial had been taken yet.

“I could not believe it. We were not prepared to hear something like this.”

Former MP ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan said Coco’s body had been kept in a Kuala Lumpur hospital mortuary.

Khaleda’s press wing official Shamsuddin Didar said a Namaz-e-Janaza will be held at Masjid Negara in Kuala Lumpur after the Zuhr prayer on Sunday.

Khaleda’s family members and relatives rushed to her office after the news broke.

Several members of the BNP Standing Committee and other political leaders also went to extend to their sympathies.