Serajul Alam Khan no more
Serajul Alam Khan, one of the chief organisers of Bangladesh’s liberation war, has passed away.
He breathed his last at 2:30pm while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday.
DMCH’s director brigadier general Nazmul Haque confirmed his death.
Serajul Alam was admitted to the hospital with health complications and put on Intensive Care Unit on 1 June. As his condition deteriorated further, Serajul Alam Khan was put on life support on Thursday.
He was born in Alipur village under Begumganj upazila in Noakhali on 6 January in 1941 to school inspector Khorshed Alam Khan and housewife Zakia Khatun. He was second among nine siblings.
Serajul Alam Khan became assistant secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League in 1961 and elected general secretary of the organisation in 1963.
Immediately after the independence, Serajul Alam Khan initiated Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) in 1972.
Writer, researcher Mohiuddin Ahmed wrote a book titled ‘Protinayak Serajul Alam Khan’, which was published by Prothoma Prokashan.
Mohiuddin wrote, “Serajul Alam Khan’s rise was in 1960s under student leader Shah Moazzem Hossain, and at the aegis of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Some more student leaders were prominent at that time. Serajul Alam Khan's difference with the others is- he was tenacious. He himself said Sheikh Mujib’s six-point had ignited his heart. When Mujib was released from jail in 1969, he found the ground was prepared for him where he can sow the seeds. Serajul Alam Khan was the man behind preparing the ground. And, he did that acknowledging Sheikh Mujib as his leader.”
In his reaction over the death of Serajul Alam Khan, writer Mohiuddin Ahmed told Prothom Alo today, “Serajul Alam Khan was a successful organizer in 1960s. He made us dream for independence.”
Mohiuddin said Serajul Alam Alam focused on organizing the youth of the country after liberation war rather than joining hands with power.
In ‘Protinayak Serajul Alam Khan’, he shared his final wishes.
“There will be no commemoration after my death. The body will not be displayed at the Shaheed Minar. My body, confined in a wooden coffin, should be sent to my village home in Begumganj, Noakhali as soon as possible. I’ve kept a sari of my mother. Draped with that sari, my coffin would be buried in the grave of my mother.”
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir expressed his deep condolences at the demise of Serajul Alam Khan.