Kazi Zafar’s Janaza held at Tongi’s Ijtema field

Several hundred people have joined the Namaaz-e-Janaza for Kazi Zafar held at Tongi’s Ijtema field on Friday.

Chairman of a faction of the Jatiya Party, Zafar, who was once a labour leader, had played a significant political role as the organiser of various movements. 

Politicians and labour rights leaders from several organisations joined Zafar’s funeral at the field around 8am. 

His body was brought to Tongi in an ambulance in the morning and taken back to his Gulshan home after the Janaza.  

There will be two more Namaaz-e-Janazas before the body is taken to his village home at Chiura, in Comilla’s Chouddagram, for burial, his family has said. 

One will be held at the National Parliament Complex’s South Plaza at noon, followed by another at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.

The 76-year-old suffered a heart attack and died on Thursday morning.

He had served as education minister for Ziaur Rahman and was prime minister in HM Ershad’s regime.

Zafar was affiliated to the ‘pro-China’ Communist Party as a student leader in the 1960s. He emerged as a labour leader through his participation in political activities in Tongi’s industrial area.    

“Kazi Zafar used to organise and lead workers in Tongi industrial area during the Pakistan era. He became very close to the workers and the people of the area since then,” said former Tongi labour leader and BNP central leader Hasan Uddin Sarkar. 

Zafar, before his death, had told his family to hold his Janaza at Tongi, he said. 

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