Mahmuda Islam Fatema, widow of former Public Works Department sub-assistant engineer Saiful Islam, died from respiratory failure at a Dhaka hospital on Tuesday. She was 65.

She left behind her four sons, a host of relatives and admirers to mourn her death, says a press release.

Fatema, mother of former assistant news editor of The Bangladesh Today and human rights activist Ashif Mahmud, was buried at Arifpur graveyard in Pabna after a namaz-e-janaza.