The body of BNP vice chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka is expected to reach Dhaka on Thursday (Nov 7).

“The family members will depart for Bangladesh with Khoka’s body on Wednesday (Nov 6),” BNP chairperson’s media wing member Shairul Kabir Khan told Bangla Tribune.

He added that the body is expected to arrive in Dhaka on Thursday morning.

The first funeral prayer of the former mayor of the undivided Dhaka city was held in New York on Monday (Nov 4) night.

Khan said that BNP and Awami League leaders, consulate officials and large number of Bangladeshis there attended the rite, where the freedom fighter was given guard of honor.

Khoka, 67, breathed his last at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York on Monday following a long battle with cancer.

The veteran politician is survived by his wife Ismat Ara, two sons Ishraque and Ishfaque and daughter Sarika.

On Wednesday (Nov 6), the BNP will observe countrywide mourning at the Khoka’s death death.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told the media on Tuesday (Nov 5) that Khoka’s second funeral prayers will be held at the south plaza of the National Parliament.

“His body will be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar from 12 pm to 1 pm on Thursday for people to pay their respects,” Rizvi said.

He added that Khoka’s body will taken to Dhaka City Corporation at 3 pm for the third funeral prayers.

He will be laid to rest beside his parents at Dhaka’s Jurain after the Asr prayers.

Khoka stepped into politics through joining Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani’s National Awami Party (NAP).

Later, he joined the BNP and was made party’s Dhaka metropolitan unit president.

He was elected mayor of Dhaka City Corporation in 2002 and held the post for nearly nine years.

He went to the US on May 14, 2014 and has died on Monday (Nov 4) at a New York Hospital following a long battle with cancer.