Nazrul Complex inaugurated

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offers munajat at the mazar of poet Nazrul Islam after inaugurating the Nazrul Complex on the Dhaka University (DU) campus yesterday. Photo: PID

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the Nazrul Complex around the mazar of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam on the Dhaka University (DU) campus yesterday.
Hasina also placed wreaths as the head of the government and the president of Awami League at the grave of the national poet at around 7:00am, marking his 33rd death anniversary. The prime minister also offered special prayers.
Members of her cabinet, including Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak, State Minister for Housing and Public Works Advocate Abdul Mannan Khan and former DU vice chancellor Prof AK Azad Chowdhury and a good number of teachers of the university were present on the occasion.
Several hundreds students and Chhatra League leaders and activists welcomed Hasina on the by standing on roads near complex premises.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the complex marking the birth centenary of poet Nazrul on May 25, 1999. The project was stopped after the changeover in the government in 2001.
Later, an adviser to the past caretaker government Anwarul Iqbal took the initiative to restart the project with the financial assistance of the local government department in March 2008, according to DU officials.
An information centre has been built in the complex where information about rebel poet Nazrul and two other great artists -- Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Patua Kamrul Hasan -- whose tombs is inside the complex, would be available.
Mazharul Islam is the architect of the complex, which has been constructed at a cost Tk 1.51 crore.
Tombs of artists Zainul and Kamrul have also been rebuilt under the project.