Veteran journalist ABM Musa dies

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Musa has made significant contributions to the fields of journalism during his career

Veteran journalist ABM Musa has died at a Dhaka Hospital at the age of 83.

Doctors removed his life support around 1:15pm on Wednesday, Lab Aid Hospital Senior Manager Saifur Rahman Lenin told the Dhaka Tribune.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have expressed deep shock and offered condolences to the family of the noted journalist.

The veteran journalist was at life support at Lab Aid Hospital for the past few days.

He was hospitalised on January 1 and attended treatments for over a month before being admitted again in February for several complications.

He relapsed again on March 29 and was attending treatments since.

Born on February 28, 1931, in Feni at Dharmapur village under Fulgazi thana. Musa had significant contributions to the fields of journalism during his nearly 64-year old carrier.

He started his career as a journalist in 1950 with the then Daily Insaf. He switched over to the then daily Pakistan Observer from Insaf in the same year.

He covered the 1971 liberation war as a correspondent of BBC and Sunday Times.

One of the founder members of National Press Club, he was elected its general secretary thrice and president for four times.

ABM Musa was also a founder of Pakistan Journalists Union and elected general secretary of the then East Pakistan Journalists Union.

After the independence, he joined Bangladesh Television (BTV) as its director general and later became editor of the then Morning News.

He was also elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Feni constituency in 1973 as an Awami League candidate.

ABM Musa joined as a regional director of United Nations Environment Programmes in Bangkok in 1978. He was director general (DG) of Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) from 1981 to 1985.

The veteran journalist joined BSS as its managing director and chief editor on May 15 in 1985 and was with the national news agency till March 23, 1987.

He joined Daily Jugantar as its editor in 2005 and worked about a year.

He got Ekushey Padak and many other awards for his outstanding contribution to journalism.

Source: Dhaka Tribune