Former Awami League lawmaker from Jessore Khan Tipu Sultan dies

Former Awami League MP and freedom fighter Khan Tipu Sultan has died. He was 67.

The lawyer breathed his last at the Central Hospital in Dhaka around 9:30pm on Saturday, one of his cousins, SM Abdur Rashid, told bdnews24.com.

He is survived by his wife Jesmine Begum, a doctor, and two sons - Sadaf Humayun and Zubayer Sultan.

He was taken to a local hospital in Jessore with fever on Monday last week and later transferred to the hospital in Dhaka the same day, Abdur Rashid said.

A namaz-e-janaza will be held at Parliament's South Plaza at 11am on Sunday.

After the janaza at Supreme Court after Johr prayers, the body will be taken to Monirampur in Jessore for another funeral prayer, according to Jessore-2 MP Md Monirul Islam.

The three-time MP from Jessore-5 seat will be buried in his ancestral village in Khulna's Dumuria, Monirul said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed condolences on his death and extended sympathy to the bereaved family of Tipu Sultan.

Born on Dec 13, 1950, in Dhamalia village of Khulna's Dumuria, Tipu Sultan got involved with student politics when he was a 10th grader in 1966.

Leading students in the 1969 movement in Jessore, he became the president of the district unit of the Chhatra League.

He and six others were sentenced to six months in prison later by a military court of Pakistan for protesting the arrival of Muslim League leader Nurul Amin to Jessore region.

The case was subsequently withdrawn at the request of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the meeting with Yahya Khan after the Awami League's victory in the 1970 elections.

He then started his political career in Jessore on Bangabandhu's order while studying in Dhaka University after independence.

Tipu Sultan is among the few who publicly protested the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975.