BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka laid to rest

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Bangla Tribune Report
Published : 22:17, Nov 07, 2019 | Updated : 22:25, Nov 07, 2019

Freedom fighter and former mayor of undivided Dhaka City Corporation Sadeque Hossain Khoka has been laid to rest at Jurain graveyard in Dhaka.
A vice president of BNP, Khoka was buried beside his mother’s grave as per his wish on Thursday (Nov 7) evening.
Earlier in the day, the mortal remains of Khoka was brought back home from the USA by a flight of Emirates Airlines that landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 8:28am.
The family members of the BNP leader, including his wife IsmatAra, also returned home in the same flight.
BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku received the body at the airport on behalf of the party.
The body was taken to the South Plaza of the parliament for his first namaj-e-janaza in the country.
Later, his body was taken to the Central Shaheed Minar where leaders of different political parties and people from all walks of life paid their last respects.
After that, the body was taken to BNP’s central office at 1:30pm where his second janaza was held.
His third janaza in the country was held at Nagar Bhaban around 3pm and his fourth janaza was held at Dhupkhola field in Gandaria. Before the last janaza, his body was taken to his house at Gopibagh.
Khoka, a valiant freedom fighter, who had long been suffering from cancer, died at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York on Monday at the age of 68.
His first namaz-e-janaza washeld at Jamaica Muslim Centre in New York on Monday night. A large number of expatriate Bangladeshis participated in it.
The veteran politician is survived by his wife, daughter Sarika Sadeque, sons Ishraque Hossain and Ishfaque Hossain.
Khoka was born on 12 May in 1952. He joined the Liberation War in 1971 while he was a student of the University of Dhaka.
He stepped into politics through joining Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani’s National Awami Party (NAP).
Later, Khoka joined the BNP and was made party’s Dhaka metropolitan unit president.
He was first elected MP in 1991 from Sutrapur-Kotwali seat and was subsequently made State Minister for Youth and Sports.
Khoka He was elected MP from the same seat in 2001 and given the charge of the Minister of Fisheries and Livestock.
Later, he contested Dhaka City Corporation election in 2002 and was elected mayor. He held the post for nearly nine years.
Khoka was arrested days before the Jan 5 national election in 2014 and later released on bail.
He, however, had been suffering from kidney cancer since 2012.
On May 14, 2014, Khoka went to the US and receiving treatment there.

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