Staff Reporter :Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to visit the grieving BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her political office in the city’s Gulshan on Saturday evening. But the PM could not meet [Khaleda] as she was asleep taking sedative injection after hearing the death news of her son Arafat Rahman Koko.Sheikh Hasina reached Khaleda’s office at 8:36pm. The PM came out of her car and waited for sometime outside the main entrance. Finally, she left the spot at around 8:40pm. The motorcade of the PM returned to Ganabhaban, her official residence, as none was there to receive her in the main entrance. The gate of the BNP Chief’s Gulshan office was kept closed too.When the PM reached the spot, BNP Chairperson’s Special Assistant Shimul Biswas conveyed the message to PM’s special assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil that Khaleda was asleep after taking a sedative dose to control the shock. BNP, however, thanked the PM for expressing condolence to its cahirperson over her son’s death.Awami League leaders, including Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed also went there accompanied by the PM. Earlier, former Foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni rushed to the spot. But none of them could cross the barrier of main entrance. It was a hot item for the media when several private television channels started showing live coverage of the PM’s visit. The countrymen were also keen to see the two leaders of two major political parties when the nation is apparently locked in a political impasse. Prime Minister’s Office [PMO] sources said that the Premier was very eager to express her condolence to the BNP chief personally at the death of her younger son.Meanwhile, PM’s Media Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury claimed that Khaleda’s office was locked from inside.”The PM went there to console the BNP chief following the death of her son but failed to meet Khaleda as the gate of her office was locked from inside and none was there to receive her,” he told journalists around 9:00pm in front of Khaleda’s Gulshan office.Hasina waited in front of Khaleda’s Gulshan office for about five minutes but none received her there and later headed back. “She was there to console a mother not a politician. But, what BNP did today, in no way, can be a manifestation of political etiquettes,” the PM’s Media Advisor stated.On the other hand, Shimul Biswas told the media that Khaleda was asleep and they would arrange a new schedule for the meeting if Hasina expressed further interest. “The BNP-led 20-party alliance will continue with their ongoing anti-government movement,” he said. Earlier in May 2009, Khaleda Zia, then Leader of the Opposition in parliament, rushed to Sudha Sadan to stand beside Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and convey her condolence on the death of Dr MA Wazed Miah, husband of Sheikh Hasina. The BNP chief’s youngest son Koko, carrying a six-year jail sentence for laundering money abroad, died of heart failure in Malaysia.Khaleda’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan said that the 45-year-old was being taken to a hospital on Saturday afternoon Bangladesh time but he collapsed on the way.
