Bangla Academy gets Habibullah Sirajee as director general

Poet Habibullah Sirajee has been appointed as the new director general of Bangla Academy.

The Public Relations Department of the academy said he took charge of the post on Thursday.

Sirajee replaced Shamsuzzaman Khan, whose tenure ended in May after 10 years. The post had been vacant since Shamsuzzaman left.

Sirajee, who played a leading role in the formation of the National Poetry Council in the 1980s, received the Ekushey Padak in 2016. Prior to that, he received the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1991.

He was born in Faridpur on Dec 31, 1948. He has written 32 books of poetry. He has also written novels, essays and memoirs.