Shamim Eskandar flies to Malaysia to bring back Arafat Rahman’s body

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s brother Shamim Eskandar and two of her other relatives flew to Malaysia to bring back the body of Arafat Rahman, her youngest son, who died of massive heart attack on Saturday. They will also attend the first funeral prayers for Arafat at the national mosque of Malaysia – Masjid Negara – in Kuala Lumpur after johr prayers, said Shamsuddin Didar, a press wing officer of the BNP chairperson. Arafat Rahman,45, died of a heart attack in Malaysia at about 12:30pm Bangladesh time on the way to National University of Malaysia Hospital after falling ill at his residence at Ampang neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur, BNP chairperson’s press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel said. The body is kept at the National University of Malaysia Hospital mortuary. Arafat had been living in a rented house at Ampang neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur along with his wife and two daughters for several years, said BNP sources.

Following the political changeover on January 11 in 2007, Khaleda and her sons —Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman — were arrested on charges of corruption. Khaleda and Arafat were arrested at their Dhaka Cantonment residence on September 2, 2007. After his release on parole on July 19, 2008, Arafat flew to Thailand with his family for treatment. Later, he moved to Malaysia and since then had been living there. Arafat was awarded a six-year imprisonment on June 23, 2011 in a money laundering case. He was also fined around Tk 39 crore and the court ordered confiscation of 19.70 crore which was smuggled out of Bangladesh. He was made accused in four more cases. BNP said the cases were politically motivated. The Anti-Corruption Commission said it had brought back around 20.41 lakh Singapore dollars laundered by Arafat and his associates in 2012.

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