BUET’s first female VC Prof Khaleda Ekram laid to rest

The first female vice-chancellor (VC) of BUET, Prof Khaleda Ekram, has been buried at the Banani Graveyard in Dhaka.

The 66-year-old, who was suffering from ‘non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma’, a kind of cancer, and other related medical complications, had passed away early on Tuesday morning in a Bangkok hospital after a 10-day battle for life.

Students, teachers, well-wishers and prominent people paid their last respects on the university campus amidst rain on Wednesday.

Prof Ekram had worked at the top engineering university of Bangladesh for 44 years. She was the BUET’s 12th VC.

A Thai Airways flight carrying her body landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 12:15pm Wednesday. The remains were taken to BUET from there.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Military Secretary Maj Gen Mia Mohammad Joynul Abedin paid floral tributes.

He was followed by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman, Jahangirnagar University VC Prof Farzana Islam, BUET Alumni President Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, University Grants Commission Member Prof Dil Afroza Begum and Acting VC of BUET Prof Jebun Nasrin Ahmad, among many others.

A number of BUET-based organisations including the Teachers’ Association also paid their last respects to Prof Ekram.

After a Namaz-e-Janaza at the BUET central mosque, she was buried on her mother’s grave at the Banani Graveyard.

Born on Aug 6, 1950, in Dhaka, Prof Ekram joined in BUET’s architecture department as a lecturer a year after completing her honours course from the same department in 1974.

She had done her Master’s in urban and regional planning from the University of Hawaii in the US in 1980.

She was made BUET VC in September 2014.