Zohra Tajuddin no more

Syeda Zohra Tajuddin, 80, has died at a hospital in Dhaka City.

She was a presidium member of the Awami League and the wife of Bangladesh's first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed.

She breathed her last at the United Hospital at 10:37am on Friday, her daughter MP Simin Hossain Rimi told bdnews24.com.

Zohra Tajuddin had organised and united the party, taking charge as convener after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with his family, was assassinated in 1975.

Her husband Tajuddin Ahmed was one of the four top Awami League leaders to be killed in jail in November 1975 after Bangabandhu's assassination.

These four leaders including Tajuddin had spearheaded the provisional government that led the country's war of liberation from its base in India in 1971.

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have expressed deep shock at her death.

Her family members said she had been suffering from different old age complications for a prolong-period. She had suffered a hip fracture after a fall in Nov.

She was treated at the United Hospital for some days and then admitted to a Delhi hospital, where she underwent a surgery.

Zohra Tajuddin was regularly consulting doctors at the United Hospital, where she was admitted on Wednesday.

She was moved to the Intensive Care Unit ICU) of the hospital as her condition worsened on Thursday, Masrufa Hossain, a doctor at the ICU, told bdnews24.com.

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."

Awami League leaders Tofail Ahmed and Sajeda Chowdhury accompanied the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister's Deputy Press Secretary Ashraful Alam Khokon said Zohra Tajuddin's first namaz-e-janaza will be held on the premises of Azad Mosque in Dhaka City's Gulshan.

Her body will be kept in front of the party office at Bangabandhu Avenue for everyone to pay their last respects to her, he said.

Her family members also said Zohra Tajuddin's son Tanjim Ahmed, popularly known as Sohel Taj, who was State Minister during the erstwhile Grand Alliance Government, is now staying in the USA. After he comes, she will be laid to rest beside her husband's grave at Banani Graveyard on Sunday.

She married Tajuddin Ahmed in 1959.

She is survived by her four children. Of them, Sharmin Ahmed Reepi is the eldest. Her second child and daughter Simin Hossain Rimi is the MP from Gazipur-4 constituency. Her youngest daughter is Mahjabeen Ahmed Mimi.