Slight progress in Matin’s condition

Language movement veteran Abdul Matin has not regained consciousness even two days after a brain surgery.

“He hasn’t regained consciousness yet. But doctors are saying his condition has improved a little compared to Thursday,” Matin’s political colleague Mafijur Rahman Laltu told bdnews24.com on Friday evening.

He said Matin’s blood pressure had dropped slightly on Thursday night but there are no other problems now, he said.

The operation was performed on Wednesday at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) to remove a blood clot from his brain. The surgery was primarily successful, but he has remained unconscious since then.

Matin, 88, was admitted to Dhaka's City Hospital on Monday in a critical condition, where doctors identified the clot. He was transferred to the BSMMU on Tuesday.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim went to see him at the hospital soon after the surgery.

BSMMU Vice Chancellor Prof Pran Gopal Datta said the hospital was bearing entire cost of Matin’s treatment.

Matin, a leader of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, was born on Dec 3, 1926 at Dhublia village under Sirajganj’s Chouhali Upazila.

He entered Dhaka University in 1945.

He is known as ‘Bhasha Matin’ (language warrior Matin) for his role as the convenor of the all-party state language movement committee in 1952.

The veteran played an active role in forming the Chhatra Union after the Language Movement and subsequently became its president. He then got involved in the communist movement.

Matin was appointed the secretary of the Communist Party’s Pabna district unit in 1954, but joined Maulana Bhasani’s NAP three years later.

He formed the ‘East Pakistan Communist Party’ a year later.

In 1992, he played an active part in forming the Workers Party of Bangladesh and resigned in 2006.

He joined the Workers Party again three years later, when it was reformed under Haider Akbar Khan Rono. Matin remained with it, although Rono later moved to the Communist Party of Bangladesh.

The veteran has authored several books on the Language Movement.

Of them, ‘Bangali Jatir Utsya Sandhan and Bhasha Andolan’ (in search of the Bengali’s root and the Language Movement), ‘Bhasha Andolan Ki Ebong Keno’ (what is Language Movement and why it took place), and ‘Bhasha Andolaner Itihash’ (the history of Language Movement) are well known.