Senior journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury has died after he fell off a moving bus in capital Dhaka.
One of his colleagues, Syed Abdal Ahmed, told bdnews24.com he was on way to join a TV talk-show when the accident happened at Karwan Bazar a little after 8pm on Saturday.
One of the witnesses, Imrul Qayes, said the former chief editor and MD of state-run media, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, or BSS, fell to the ground when he was getting off the bus at the busy intersection.
Qayes was one of those who rushed the journalist to nearby Mohona Clinic at Panthapath. “There was blood coming out of his nose and ears at the time,” he told bdnews24.com.
“After keeping the critically injured man there for at least 45 minutes, doctors of that clinic said they could not treat him.”
“Then we rushed him to Comfort Hospital where the doctors declared him dead,” Qayes said.
Quoting the doctors, police told bdnews24.com that Chowdhury had died from internal haemorrhage.
Chowdhury, 65, with a career in journalism spanning nearly four decades, was last working as a consulting editor of The Financial Express, said his long-time colleague Daily Ittefaq’s Special Correspondent Mainul Alam.
Daily Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta told bdnews24.com: “Zaglul Bhai and I were supposed to join the talk-show on ATN Bangla together.
“He called me around 8pm to say he will be there shortly. But he never arrived,” Dutta said.
One of Chowdhury’s friends, Rashidul Hasan Khan, told bdnews24.com: “He left for ATN Bangla around 7pm after spending some time with me at Dhaka Club. He was telling me about his recent visit to the US.”
The columnist returned on Nov 19, he said.
He was supposed to attend CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim’s daughter’s wedding ceremony after the talk-show and then go home, Khan said.
Abdal Ahmed, the National Press Club general secretary, said Chowdhury’s body was kept at the mortuary at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
Chowdhury lived at Dhaka’s Banani. He has left his wife, a son and a daughter.
Son Nabid Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters the family would decide about the funeral and burial processes after his sister arrived from the US.
President Md Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia have expressed deep shock over the journalist’s death and condoled the grief-stricken family members.
In a condolence message, the prime minister said the country lost a bright star of the world of journalism.
“I have lost a classmate and well-wisher. The void created by Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury’s death cannot be filled up,” she said.
Chowdhury was born in January 1951 at Pyaim village in Habiganj’s Madhobpur Upazila.
His father Nasiruddin Chowdhury was the law minister of the 1954 Jukta Front or United Front government.
The former BSS boss did his Bachelor’s and Master’s in political science at Dhaka University.
He had also worked as Bangladesh Correspondent for the New York Times.
The veteran journalist was a permanent member of the National Press Club and Dhaka Reporters Unity. He was also involved with social organisations.
Chowdhury was also the assistant secretary general of the undivided Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists in 1988-89.
Source: bdnews24