Dhaka, Oct 04 (V7N) – People from all walks of life paid their final respects to language movement veteran, poet, essayist, and eminent Rabindra scholar Ahmed Rafiq at the Central Shaheed Minar on Saturday morning.

After the tributes, his body was handed over to Ibrahim Medical College as per his last wish. A coffin procession carried his body to the college hospital, where it was formally received for medical education and research purposes.

Ahmed Rafiq passed away on Thursday night while undergoing treatment in the ICU of BIRDEM Hospital in Dhaka. He was 96 years old at the time of his death.

A revered figure in Bangladesh’s literary and intellectual circles, Ahmed Rafiq was one of the foremost essayists and historians of the Language Movement. Throughout his illustrious career, he wrote and edited more than one hundred books and was widely celebrated for his deep research and writings on Rabindranath Tagore.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Bangla literature and culture, he was awarded the Ekushey Padak and the Bangla Academy Literary Award, among many other honors.

END/SMA/AJ