UNB, Dhaka: Arafat Rahman Koko, the younger son of former president Ziaur Rahman and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, died in Malaysia on Saturday. He was 45. “Yes, he died…we’re yet to know the details of his death,” BNP chairperson’s special assistant Shimul Biswas told UNB. BNP sources said doctors declared Koko dead around 12:30 pm (BST) as he was taken to Malaya University Hospital in Kuala Lumpur after he complained of chest pain at his house. Former BNP MP Asharfuddin Nizan said Koko’s body was kept at the mortuary of the Malaya University Hospital. Koko was born at Comilla Cantonment in 1970. He is survived by wife Shamila Rahman and two daughters — Zahia Rahman and Jaifa Rahman. Khaleda got dumfounded and then burst into tears when Nasrin Sayed, wife of Khaleda’s elder brother Sayed Iskander and Kaniz Fatema, wife of her younger brother Shamim Iskander, conveyed to her the death news at her Gulshan office around 2:30 pm. Khaleda’s elder son and BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, who has been staying in London since 2008, made a phone call at that time and talked to her shocked mother. Following the death news, a pall of gloom descended on the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, where Khaleda Zia had been kept confined since January 3. A Quran Khwani was then arranged on the first floor of the office. Senior party leaders, BNP standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman, Dr Moyeen Khan, Rafiqul Islam Miah and relatives thronged the Gulshan office to console the BNP chief at the premature death of her younger son. Following the 1/11 political changeover, Koko was arrested on September 3, 2007 on corruption charges. He was released on parole for treatment abroad on July 17 the following year. He left for Bangkok on July 19, 2008 for better treatment as he had been suffering from respiratory problems, after the government allowed the detained accused parole for two months. Later, the duration of the parole extended several times. Koko then moved to Malaysia and had been staying there since then. On June 23, 2011, Koko was sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment in absentia for laundering over Tk 20 crore to Singapore. Khaleda Zia met her younger son last in Bangkok in June 2013 during her visit to the United States.
