CPB Presidium Member Syed Abu Zafar Ahmed passes away

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Presidium Member Syed Abu Zafar Ahmed passed away early yesterday due to a cardiac arrest.

Former general secretary of CPB and freedom fighter Abu Zafar had been battling several health issues for a long time.

He passed away at a hospital in the capital at the age of 65.

He will be buried at his ancestral home in Moulvibazar on Saturday, said Sazzad Zahir Chandan, assistant general secretary of CPB.

CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim, General Secretary M Shah Alam and top leaders and activists of different political parties paid their respects to Abu Zafar at CPB office yesterday morning.

Zafar was re-elected general secretary of CPB in the party’s last congress in 2016. He then resigned due to health complications in May 2017, and was later inducted into the party’s presidium.

Born in Moulvibazar on July 11, 1958, Zafar had been a prominent political activist from his student days.

Zafar was jailed for protesting the death of tea workers in 1972 and 1973, and for playing a part in the movement to remove the military rule of Ershad. He also went behind bars for protesting the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.