State send-off for evergreen revolutionary

State honour was accorded to late anti-British movement legend Binod Bihari Chowdhury on Friday.

Assistant Commissioner of Dhaka Mohammad Raselul Kader led the guard of honour on behalf of the district administration at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.

After Binod Bihari’s mortal remains arrived in Bangladesh in the morning, his body was taken there around 2pm for the people to pay their last respects to the evergreen revolutionary.

The body would be kept there until 4pm.

The coffin, which is kept on a platform at the Shaheed Minar, is wrapped in the national flag.

On behalf of Acting President Abdul Hamid, his Assistant Personal Secretary Monirul Islam laid wreaths on the coffin first. Then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Special Assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil and Personal Assistant Saifuzzaman Shikhor paid floral tributes.

They were followed by several ministers of the government and various cultural, political and social organisations in paying their respects to Binod Bihari.

The 103-year-old firebrand revolutionary, a close associate of celebrated revolutionary ‘Master’da’ Surya Sen, died at 9:40pm local time on Wednesday night at the Fortis Hospital in Kolkata while undergoing treatment.

A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight carrying his dead body, his daughter-in-law Upali Chowdhury and grandson Soumo Shuvro Chowdhury, landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday noon.

Prime Minister’s Personal Assistant Shikhor received the dead body at the airport.

International Crimes Tribunal-2 prosecutor Rana Das Gupta, who is known to have been close to Binod Bihari Chowdhury, and Awami Swechchasebak League General Secretary Pankaj Devnath were present at the airport with Shikhor.

Devnath told reporters that a helicopter would carry his dead body to Chittagong after people paid their respects.

His last rites will be performed in Chittagong, where he fought the British in his youth, in keeping with his last wishes.

Das Gupta said he would be cremated at the Boluar Dighi Abhay Mitra Crematorium.