Journalist Ataus Samad, who died in Apollo Hospitals at the age of 75 on Wednesday, was buried in his father’s grave in the Azimpur graveyard on Thursday afternoon.
Before the burial, the body was taken to the National Press Club where hundreds of people from political, cultural, academic and media arenas pay their last respect to the late journalist.
His long-time professional colleague ABM Musa, leftist thinkers Badruddin Umar and Serajul Islam Choudhury, also a professor emeritus of Dhaka University, and the agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, also went to the press club.
His second namaz-e-janaza was held outside the press club auditorium.
Journalist Kamal Lohani, fisheries and livestock minister Abul Latif Siddiqui, information minister Hasanul Huq Inu, cultural affairs minister Abul Kalam Azad, acing BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP standing committee members Tariqul Islam, Khandaker Moshrraf Hossain and Mirza Abbas, local government state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, former adviser to the caretaker government Moinul Hossain, Samakal editor Golam Sarwar, Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman, Dhaka University vice-chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, poet Farhad Mazhar, one of the founders of Ganasasthaya Kendra Zafrullah Chowdhury, economist Mabubullah, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khalequzzman, Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon, Revolutionary Workers Party president Saiful Huq, garment workers’ leader Mushrefa Mishu, Ganasanghati Andolan coordinator Zonayed Saki and journalists NM Harun, Mahfuzullah and Farid Hossain paid their last respect to Ataus Samad at the press club.
Various organisations including two factions of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and the Dhaka Union Journalists, the National Press Club, the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Workers Party, Jatiya Mukti Council, United People’s Democratic Front, Dhaka University’s mass communication and journalism department and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, placed flowers by the coffin after the namaz-e-janaza.
A group of mass communication and journalism teachers of Dhaka University recalled their memories of Samad, who had for long taught in the department as a visiting teacher.
His colleagues from the BBC and his last workplace Amar Desh also reminisced about him.
Earlier, the first namaz-e-janaza was held at Azad Mosque in Gulshan.
A media person of international repute, Samad began his journalistic career in 1957.
He became popular among the masses during career in the BBC Bengali Service between 1982 and 1994.
He was chief correspondent of the now-defunct Pakistan Observer in 1965–1969 was the East Pakistan bureau chief of the Sun. He also worked with the national news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha in 1972–1976. He was the general secretary of the East Pakistan Union of Journalists.
-With New Age input
