People from all walks of life thronged the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka on Saturday morning to pay their last respects to Professor Emeritus Syed Manzoorul Islam.
Syed Manzoorul Islam, a distinguished professor of the English Department at the University of Dhaka, as well as a noted fiction writer and essayist, passed away at the age of 74 on Friday (10 October) at around 5pm.
He was undergoing treatment at LabAid Hospital in Dhaka.
On Saturday morning around 10:30am, the body of the esteemed academic was brought to the front of Aparajeyo Bangla at the University of Dhaka.
Faculty members and students from various departments, including the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman Khan, the Chairman of the English Department, Professor Tazin Aziz Chaudhury, the English Alumni Association, and the Music Department, paid tribute to Manzoorul Islam by placing floral wreaths before proceeding to the Central Shaheed Minar.
Earlier, on 3 October, Professor Manzoorul Islam fell ill while traveling to the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) in Dhanmondi. He was taken to a nearby hospital and later admitted to LabAid Hospital.
Born in 1951 in Sylhet, Syed Manzoorul Islam completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Dhaka’s English Department and earned his PhD from Queen’s University in Canada.
He served as a faculty member of the English Department at Dhaka University for many years and retired in 2018 after completing his tenure. After retirement, he joined the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh. In 2023, he was honoured with the title of Emeritus Professor by the University of Dhaka.
Syed Manzoorul Islam was a recipient of the Bangla Academy Literary Award and the prestigious Ekushey Padak.
He will be buried at the Mirpur Intellectuals’ Graveyard in Dhaka.
