Arafat burial at army graveyard not allowed
January 28, 2015 12:27 am·
Staff Correspondent
The army on Tuesday refused permission for burial of Arafat Rahman at the military graveyard at Banani although he deserved a place there in line with the guideline of the graveyard. Some serving and retired army officers said that Arafat, being a son of the late president and former army chief Ziaur Rahman, deserved to be buried in the military graveyard.
Arafat, also son of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, was buried at Banani civil graveyard after his namaj-e-janaza at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the city on Tuesday. He died of a heart attack in Malaysia on Saturday at the age 45years.BNP spokesmen claimed that permission for burial of Arafat was sought maintaining all formalities. They said the graveyard managers did not let them know the reasons for the denial of permission.
Retired major general Abdur Rashid said Station Headquarters and Cantonment Boards concerned maintained the graveyards and there was a guideline on allotment of land for burial.
Section-2 (Ka) of the rules titled the ‘Military Graveyard Guideline’ says spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, father-in-law and mother-in-law of serving and retired military personnel are entitled to burial in the graveyard.
Rashid said that Arafat was entitled to have a place in the graveyard as per priority list of the entitlement. However, there is discretionary power enjoyed by every authority, he said. He said that the authorities concerned might ‘exercise the discretionary power’.
Brigadier general Nurul Momen Khan, commander of Station Headquarters of Dhaka Cantonment, told New Age around 7.00pm that he was unable to speak as he was in a conference. He referred to the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate to know about the case of not allowing Arafat a place in the graveyard.
An officer at the Station Headquarters of Dhaka Cantonment on condition of anonymity said he did not know why Arafat’s burial in the graveyard was not allowed although he was entitled to have a place there in line with the guideline.
ISPR director Shaheenul Islam said he could not respond to the New Age queries as he was out of the capital.
Chief coordinator of BNP chairperson’s defence and security matters, Fazle Elahi Akbar said an application for permission for burial of Arafat in the graveyard was submitted to Dhaka Cantonment Board on Monday.
He said all formalities, including attaching the death certificate, were properly maintained.
Akbar, a retired army officer, said the officer on duty of the cantonment board at first did not receive the application.
The very officer, however, had received the application later on saying that receiving an application did not mean permission, he said. The cantonment board officials had promised to inform them about their decision, he said.
He said a copy of the application was also faxed to the cantonment board.
Syed M Ibrahim, chairman of Kalyan Party, a component of the BNP-led alliance, told reporters in front of Khaleda’s Gulshan office that they did not understand why permission was refused for Arafat’s burial at the military graveyard.
‘It was shocking,’ he said.
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Arafat burial at army graveyard not allowed | New Age
