National news agency BSS on Sunday recalled with gratitude the contribution of its recently expired Managing Editor Shahriar Shahid to the state-run wire service and journalism as a profession as his incumbent and former colleagues joined here in a memorial discussion and Milad Mahfil.
“We have lost brilliant journalist as well as good human-being . . . It is very difficult to bear the shock of Shahriar’s untimely demise,” Prime Minister’s press secretary and former BSS managing director and chief editor Ihsanul Karim told the condolence meeting chaired by incumbent Managing Director and Chief Editor of the agency Abul Kalam Azad.
Azad said Shahriar was a sincere and talented journalist with high human qualities and he was one “who could be relied upon with any seditious task.”
“He served professional duties in BSS with utmost sincerity and devotion while he was a talented journalist but alongside his brilliant career in journalism, Shahriar was a good human-being,” he said.
Emotion gripped the meeting as Shahriar’s colleagues and former colleagues in BSS recalled their personal memories and particularly his loving and caring attitude for others alongside his high professional standards and managerial skills.
Shahriar’s wife freelance journalist Lina Shahid and relatives also attended the discussion and prayers while elderly journalist former BSS managing director and chief editor Amanullah joined as well to recall Shahriar’s debut as a promising journalist being the son of another renowned journalist late Shahidul Haque.
The speakers largely attributed to Shahriar’s spiritual pursuit as an admirer of Sufism and aimed to instill into others a sense of love for universal humanity while he tried to reflect his philosophy in his work place as a journalist with managerial responsibility, setting an example for new generation journalists.
“If you want to be good journalist, you will have to be a good person simultaneously,” several of his colleagues recalled him as saying during their interactions with Shahriar.
The colleagues also recalled with tribute Shahriar’s basic research into the 1971 Liberation War that yielded 30 basic books and several documentaries on the war history based on 1971 veterans’ interviews and comparative studies on the war.
Former chief news editor of BSS Swapan Kumar Saha, eminent journalist Nadeem Qadir, former journalist and currently a general manager of Bangladesh Bank Anwarul Islam and journalist and filmmaker Anwar Kabir also recalled their memories with Shahriar.
BSS Chief News Editor Anisur Rahman, Deputy Chief News Editor and former general secretary of BFUJ Omar Faruk, Deputy Chief News Editors Bakhtiar Rana and Ruhul Gani Sarkar Jyoti, Deputy Chief Reporters Sajjad Hossain Sabuj, Kanai Chakraborty, special correspondent Anup Kumar Khastagir, among others, spoke at the memorial meeting.
Shahriar, son of illustrious journalist and now defunct Bangladesh Times Editor AKM Shahidul Haque, breathed his last at a city hospital following a heart attack on November 17 at the age of 55.
He is survived by his wife, only son internationally reputed young photographer Sadman Shahid, a host of relatives, friends and admirers.
