Raisul Huq Bahar

Freedom fighter and journalist Raisul Huq Bahar was a symbol of honest journalism, said speakers at a memorial programme in Chattogram yesterday.

Chattogram Union of Journalists (CUJ) organised the event at its office.

Nazimuddin Shyamal, president of CUJ, said Bahar was always vocal about the rights of his fellow journalists.

Vice-President of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Riaz Haider Chowdhury and CUJ General Secretary Hasan Ferdous spoke among others.

Bahar died of a cardiac arrest on September 18.

Bahar was born on April 1, 1952 at Companiganj upazila in Noakhali. He was a guerrilla commander during the Liberation War, and led an operation to destroy an arms-laden truck of Pakistan army and a bridge at Kaibalyadham in Kattali on October 29, 1971.

He served as Chattogram bureau chief of The Daily Star between 2010 and 2015. A former accounts officer of Chittagong Port, Bahar started his career in journalism with local daily Sebok in 1972, and also served as associate editor at local dailies the Suprobhat Bangladesh and Daily Purbokone.