Khoka’s body to arrive from US Thursday

The body of BNP leader and former mayor of undivided Dhaka City Corporation Sadeque Hossain Khoka is expected to arrive here from the USA  on Thursday morning. 

A flight of Emirates Airlines carrying Khoka's body will leave John F Kennedy Airport at 11 pm (local time) today and reach Dhaka on Thursday morning,  his son Ishraque Hossain told UNB. 

Ishraque said his father's first namaz-e-janaza held at Jamaica Muslim Center, New York, on Monday night where huge Bangladeshis living in the US attended.

"We've completed all necessary preparations and received all the travel documents to take my father's body to Bangladesh along with my mother," he said.

Ishraque also said that his father will be buried at Jurain Graveyard beside the graves of his parents as per his last wish.

Several janazas will be held at different places in the capital, including in front of BNP central office, South Plaza of National Parliament, in front of Nagar Bhaban and Gopibagh residence, Ishraque added. 

Sadeque Hossain Khoka, 67, also a Freedom Fighter who had long been suffering from cancer, died at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York around 1:50pm (BST) on  Monday.

Khoka had been undergoing treatment at the hospital since October 18 for cancer with some other health complications.

Khoka is survived by his wife Ismat Ara, daughter Sarika Sadeque, sons Ishraque,Isfaque Hossain and a host of relatives, followers and well-wishers to mourn his death.

He along with his wife went to the USA in 2014 for treatment while the validity of their passports expired in 2017.