Poet Zakaria Chowdhury, a language movement veteran, an expatriate organiser of the Liberation War and former adviser to the government, died yesterday, aged 87, said a press release.

Zakaria, chief editor and publisher of the Daily Manobkantha, breathed his last at Green Life Hospital.

He did his bachelor with honours in Economics from Dhaka University in 1955.

He was arrested from a procession during the 1952 language movement, and was an organiser of the Liberation War as an expatriate in London.

Chowdhury was made adviser to the government of President Ziaur Rahman in 1977. He became lawmaker from Habiganj-2 constituency in 1996.