Veteran leftist leader Haidar Akbar Khan Rono dies at 81

Veteran politician and Advisor to the Communist Party of Bangladesh Haidar Akbar Khan Rono has died at the age of 81.

He passed away at a Dhaka hospital on Saturday, according to CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince.

“Rono Bhai is gone,” he said. “He died while undergoing treatment at a hospital around 2:05am on Saturday.”

He had been suffering from respiratory system complications for a long time. He was admitted to the Health and Hope Hospital in Panthapath on May 6. He was shifted to the High Dependency Unit when his condition deteriorated.

In a social media post on May 7, public health expert Dr Lenin Chowdhury said that the oxygen level had dropped and the carbon dioxide level had risen in Rono’s body, prompting the shift to the HDU and the administering of oxygen.

His body will be kept at the Samorita Hospital morgue until Monday as his family members are currently abroad.

After the family’s return to Bangladesh, the veteran politician’s body will be taken to the Shaheed Minar so people from all walks of life can pay their final respects to the departed. He will then be laid to rest next to his parents at the Banani Graveyard.

Rono was born on Aug 31, 1942, in Kolkata in undivided India. His ancestral home was Barashula village in Norail.

A Marxist and general secretary of the East Pakistan Students Union, Rono was one of the organisers of the Liberation War.

He was a longtime member of the Bangladesh Workers Party but left the party and joined the CPB in 2010 over differences.

In 2012, he became a praesidium member of the CPB and was appointed as an advisor to the party.