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3-day mourning begins in Dhaka lajuddin leaves for funeral

Staff Correspondent
The death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat sent shockwaves through the country yesterday and the government-announced three-day mourning for the Palestinian
leader started yesterday.
President lajuddin Ahmed last night left for Cairo to attend Arafat's funeral today.
The president and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in their messages yesterday termed Arafat a close.and trusted friend of Bangladesh and said Arafat will be remembered with great honour here for his contribution to deepening ties between the two nations and Islamic Ummah. Leader of the Opposition and President of Awami League Sheikh Hasina in her message expressed deep grief at the death of Arafat and said his sacrifice, struggle and courage for the cause of Palestinian autonomy would always be etched on history.
Remembering Arafat’s active suppo rt during the Liberation War in 1971 and his close friendship with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina said Arafat’s death has meant for Bangladesh loss of a true friend and for her, loss of a guardian.
Former diplomats and opposition leaders, who witnessed at close quarters Arafat’s rapport with Bangladeshi leaders since 1971, said that although Arafat's death marks an end of an era, Bangladesh will not and should not cease supporting the Palestinian struggle for independent statehood.
Palestinian Ambassador in Dhaka Shahta Zarab said that Arafat had a special place in his heart for Bangladesh and its people and whenever he travelled to anywhere in Asia he tried to make a stopover in Bangladesh.
Former diplomat MM Rezaul Karim told The Daily Star last night that the lasting relationship between Arafat and all the leaders of Bangladesh since 1971 was in fact a symbol of solidarity and friendship between die peoples of Palestine and Bangladesh.
Mohammad Zamir, a former ambassador, who met Arafat over 150 times, told The Daily Star that Bangladesh foreign ministry and its permanent representative in the United Nations in New York should initiate steps to push for holding a free and fair election in Palestine, especially in the Israeli-occupied cities and towns in the West Bank
The Palestinian embassy in Dhaka yesterday opened a book of condolence. President lajuddin Alimed yesterday signed the book before leaving for Cairo.
Besides hundreds of Dhaka residents who flocked to the embassy throughout the day. Speaker Zamiruddin Sircar, BNP Secretary General and Local Government and Rural Development Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil and numerous foreign envoys to Dhaka wrote their messages of condolence in the book
Meanwhile, hundreds of political and civil society organisations yesterday issued messages of condolence. They said death of Arafat is a great loss to the oppressed of the world.
Council of Returned Freedom Fighters from Palestine, a group of over 5,000 Bangladeshis, who went to South Lebanon in the 1980s to fight for the Palestinians, in a press release yesterday grieved the death of Arafat.