Ershad’s body to be taken to Rangpur Tuesday

The body of former president of Bangladesh and Jatiya Party chairman Hussain Mohammad Ershad will be taken to Rangpur on Tuesday, say party officials.

The 89-year-old leader of the opposition in the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) died at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka this (Sunday) morning.

JP presidium member Khaled Akhter confirmed this to Prothom Alo.

The Inter Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) assistant director Rashedul Alam Khan also said that the former president died around 7:45am.

Ershad’s wife Raushan Ershad and son Saad Ershad went to CMH around 8:00 in the morning, JP said.

The body has been kept at CMH morgue.

JP chairman’s deputy press secretary Khandaker Delwar Jalali told Prothom Alo in the morning that the first namaaz-e-janaza of Ershad will be held central army mosque after the Zuhr prayers.

His second janaza will be held at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad at 10:00am tomorrow, Monday, while the third janaza will be held at Baitul Mukarram, the national mosque of Bangladesh, at 11:00am on the same day.

Ershad’s body will be taken to Rangpur on Tuesday by a helicopter and a janaza will be held there. His body will then be brought back to Dhaka.

He will be buried at the army graveyard in Dhaka as was his wish, said Jatiya Party presidium member Ziauddin Bablu.

JP acting chairman GM Quader on Saturday said his brother HM Ershad had been on life support at the CMH.

Physicians had long been trying to make his kidney and liver functions normal, but there was no improvement in this regard, he added.

Ershad, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, was admitted to the CMH on 27 June as his condition deteriorated.

Ershad was born in Cooch Behar of the then British India on 1 February 1930. His father Mokbul Hossain served as a minister of the-then Maharaja of Cooch Behar. Later, his family shifted to Rangur.