National Professor Dr Anisuzzaman, who was regarded as a lighthouse and guardian of the nation, has been laid to rest at Azimpur graveyard in the capital amid an outpouring of grief.
Volunteers of Al-Markazul Islami, an organisation which has been performing funeral rituals of those who die of coronavirus, buried him around 10:15 am after Dhaka district administration accorded a guard of honour to the late professor.
His family members said Al-Markazul volunteers took Prof Anisuzzaman’s coffin from Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka to Azimpur graveyard in the morning and conducted a Namaz-e-Janaza there for the burial.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid, Bangla Academy Director General Habibullah Siraji, Anisuzzaman’s son-in-law Azimul Haque and a few other relatives were present at the funeral prayer.
Dr Anisuzzaman, Bangladesh's foremost authors, cultural activists and teacher, breathed his last at CMH on Thursday afternoon at the age of 83. Besides a combination of heart, kidney and lung ailments, he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and prostate complications.
Doctors collected samples from him before and after his death as he had a fever, one of the symptoms of coronavirus, and the test result came out positive.
State Minister Khalid said in tribute to the professor at Azimpur graveyard, “The nation has sustained an irreparable loss with the sad demise of National Professor Anisuzzaman.”
“He was a shining light in the country's education and cultural spheres. He became a forerunner with his philanthropy, nurturing of progressive and democratic ideals, intellect and knowledge.”
Dr Anisuzzaman played a remarkable role in all democratic movements from the Language Movement of 1952 to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and anti-autocracy movement in the 1980s.
Anisuzzaman was born in Calcutta [now Kolkata) in 1937. Along with his family, he moved to Khulna after the 1947 partition. About a year later, they moved to Dhaka. His father ATM Moazzem was a homeopathy practitioner and his grandfather, Sheikh Abdur Rahim, was a journalist and writer.
He completed his HSC from Jagannath College and obtained his bachelor's in 1956 and master's in 1957 in Bengali Literature from the University of Dhaka. He completed his PhD in 1962 at the age of 25 from the same university. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago during 1964-65 and a Commonwealth Academic Staff fellow at the University of London (1974–75).
Dr Anisuzzaman served as a faculty member at the University of Dhaka during 1959-69, 1985-2003 and 2005-08. He taught Bengali at the University of Chittagong during 1969-85. From 1978 to 1983, he was associated with research projects of the United Nations University. He was a visiting fellow at the University of Paris (1994), North Carolina State University (1995) and University of Calcutta (2010), and a visiting professor at the Visva-Bharati (2008-09, 2011).
Prof Anisuzzaman was a member of the Planning Commission to the Government of Bangladesh during the Bangladesh liberation war and a member of the National Education Commission set up by the government after liberation.
He was responsible for the Bengali language part of the Constitution of Bangladesh adopted in November 1972. He served as the Chairman of the Trustee Board of Nazrul Institute and had been the president of Bangla Academy since 2011.
