Serajul Alam Khan, one of the key organizers of the country’s Liberation War in 1971, died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday afternoon. He was 82.
He had been suffering from multiple health complications, including breathing and cardiac problems. ‘Dada was on life support and died in the DMCH at about 2:30pm,’ his youngest brother Ferdous Alam Khan Piyaru told media.
Serajul Alam Khan, also known as the ‘mystery man’ of country’s politics and ‘dada bhai’ to his followers mobilised students and people during the 1960s towards the armed struggle against the Pakistani rulers. He founded the Jatiya Samajtatnrik Dal in 1972 soon after the Liberation War.
Being one of the three founding members of Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad or Nucleus, a secret organisation of Chhatra League which pushed for Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, and one of the four chiefs of Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF) or Mujib Bahini, the bearded man with long hair motivated hundreds of thousands of students and youths to join the struggle for country’s independence.
As a close associate of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he played a vital role in every Bengali nationalistic movement, including Six-point Movement and Mass Uprising.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin expressed deep shock at the death of Serajul Alam Khan.
In a condolence message, he prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed sympathy to the bereaved family. Serajul Alam Khan was first admitted to Samorita Hospital on May 7 with multiple health complications, including high blood pressure, respiratory problems and a lung infection, and later transferred to the DMCH on May 20.
His body will be taken to the south gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque at 8:30am today so that people from all walks of life can pay their homage to him.
Later, his first namaz-e-janaza will be held there at 10:00am.
His mortal remains will be taken to his village home in Noakhali’s Alipur where wrapped in his mother’s saree he will be buried beside her mother’s grave following another janaza at Begumganj Govt High School ground after Asr prayers.
