Eminent litterateur Syed Shamsul Haq passed away at United Hospitals in Dhaka this evening. He was 81.

“He breathed his last at 5:26pm,” Sazzadur Rahman Shuvo, marketing officer at United Hospital, told The Daily Star.

He was undergoing treatment at Oncology department under supervision of Dr. Ashim Kumar since his admission in the hospital on September 1, he added.

He left behind his wife Anwara Syed Haq, son Ditio Syed-Haq, daughter Bidita Sadi and a host of relatives and well-wishers to mourn his death.

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Earlier on April 15, Haq was flown to UK for treatment at Royal Marsden Hospital as he had been suffering from critical lungs disease.

Haq is an accomplished short-story writer, novelist, playwright and a very popular poet. He was born in 1935 in Kurigram.

Meanwhile, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed profound shock at his demise.

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In a condolence massage, Sheikh Hasina termed the demise as irreparable loss to the country’s literary arena.

The father of the nation, Bengalis and Bangladesh were one to Syed Haq, the PM said.

In his literary works, people have been shown the path to build a secular Bangladesh upholding spirit of the Liberation War, Hasina added.

He received the Bangla Academy Award in 1966, Ekushey Padak in 1984 and Swadhinata Padal Award in 2000 for his contributions to Bangla literature.

His literary works were included in the curricula of school, secondary, higher secondary and graduation levels Bengali literature in Bangladesh.