PM pays tribute to Zohra Tajuddin

Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has paid her final tribute to the party’s presidium member Syeda Zohra Tajuddin.

Hasina placed wreath at her coffin, draped with the national flag, in front of the Awami League office on Bangabandhu Avenue on Friday afternoon.

She first paid the tribute as the prime minister and then as the party chief.

Awami League senior leaders were also present there.

Hasina reached the party office at 5:12pm.

Zohra Tajuddin, wife of Bangladesh’s first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed, died at the United Hospital in Dhaka on Friday morning.

Traffic was suspended from Paltan intersection to Bangabandhu Avenue for some time for the Prime Minister’s arrival.

Traffic resumed after the Prime Minister left the area.

Awami League leaders and people from various strata paid their last respects to Zohra Tajuddin.

A namaj-e-janaza was held on the Bangabandhu Avenue.

As news of Zohra Tajuddin's death spread in the morning, a pall of shock descended on the party leaders and activists. Awami League president Sheikh Hasina rushed to see her for the last time at the hospital.

The Prime Minister became emotional while recollecting her memories of Zohra Tajuddin Ahmed.

"Her death is an irreparable loss not only to the party but also to the whole nation. And I lost someone close to me."

The first Namaj-e-Janaza of Zohra Tajuddin was held at Gulshan’s Azad mosque.

Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed while taking part in the first Namaj-e-Janaza, said, “Zohra Apa had spearheaded the party after the assassination of Bangabandhu. She dreamt of a liberal Bangladesh.”

The family members said Zohra Tajuddin would be buried beside her husband’s grave at the Banani graveyard after her son Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, who was state minister during the erstwhile Grand Alliance Government, returned from the US.