Prof Nazrul Islam, freedom fighter and former lawmaker, dies at 80

Professor ANM Nazrul Islam, a freedom fighter and former lawmaker, has died at the age of 80, his family said.

Islam breathed his last at his home in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur around 8:30am on Tuesday, said his younger brother ARM Zoaherul Islam, a retired colonel. Prof Islam had been suffering from old-age complications for a long time.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader expressed his condolences over his passing.

Prof Islam was buried at their family graveyard in his ancestral home in state honour in Mymensingh’s Fulbaria after Asr prayers. He was given guard of honour. He is survived by his wife and a son.

An organiser of the Liberation War, Islam became an MNA on the Awami League ticket in the 1970 general election from Fulbaria-Trishal constituency.

As a young teacher at Ananda Mohan College in 1969, he organised protests after the killing of Rajshahi University teacher Dr Shamsuzzoha by the Pakistani army and was later punished by the college authorities.

During the Liberation War, he worked as a special aide to Syed Nazrul Islam, the acting president of Bangladesh.

After independence, he was a member of the national constituent assembly that drew up Bangladesh’s constitution and chaired the committee on education.

Islam was elected as a lawmaker again from the Mymensingh-6 constituency (Fulbaria) in an independent Bangladesh's first general election in 1973.

He had also served as a vice-president of the Awami League’s Mymensingh wing and a member of the party’s central executive committee in the 1970s.