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BSS-52
OBIT-SHAHJAHAN SIRAJ
Valiant freedom fighter Shahjahan Siraj no more
DHAKA, July 14, 2020 (BSS) – Valiant freedom fighter Shahjahan Siraj died at a city hospital this afternoon.
“He (Siraj) breathed his last at 3.30pm at Evercare Hospital in the city at the age of 77,” a family source said.
Siraj, also a former minister, left behind his wife, a son, a daughter as well as a host of relatives and admirers to mourn his death.
Born on March 1 in 1943 at Kalihati in Tangail, Siraj was general secretary of Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL), the student wing of Awami League, during the country’s Liberation War in 1971, according to Wikipedia.
He was one of the active members of Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad dubbed as “Nucleas” and a leader of Chhatra Sangram Parishad. Siraj served five terms as a member of parliament in Tangail-4 constituency.
He attended Government Saadat College, where he was elected vice president of the students’ union twice.
He was a leader of the Mukti Bahini and one of the designers of the national flag. Siraj read the manifesto of Bangladesh independence on March 3, 1971, in front of millions of people in the presence of the country’s architect Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He was the acting General Secretary and also the president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) and vice chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Siraj served as a minister during BNP’s tenures in 1991 and 2001.
BSS/SAH/TAN/SH/1940 hrs