Professor Ahsanul Haque, scholar and former teacher in the Department of English, Dhaka University, has passed away.
The 84-year-old academic breathed his last on Sunday at his Dhaka home, said the family. “He died around 7:30 am. He had been suffering from old age complications,” his niece Nevin Farida told bdnews24.
Haque was buried at Dhaka’s Azimpur graveyard on Sunday afternoon following a Namaaz-e-Janaja.
He was one of the key organizers of the Liberation War in 1971, when he served as the general secretary of the Dhaka University Teachers Association. The occupation Pakistani forces arrested him during the war. Haque was among those who fought for the autonomy of the University of Dhaka, which ultimately resulted in the 1973 ordinance.
Born on Jul 9, 1933, in Shahzadpur of the then Pabna district (now under Sirajganj), Haque taught at Dhaka University for 34 years. He cleared his school-leaving matriculation exams in 1950 and the intermediate exams in 1952. He completed his bachelor in English from Dhaka University in 1955 and masters the following year.
Haque’s teaching career began at Noakhali’s Chowmuhani College. He later joined Jagannath College (now Jagannath University) in Dhaka as a lecturer.
In 1960, Haque joined Dhaka University as a lecturer in English and three years later was promoted to senior lecturer. He became an assistant professor in 1966, associate professor in 1972 and in 1986 was promoted to professor. Earlier, in 1965, Haque obtained his PhD from the University of Bristol in the UK. At Dhaka University, he also served as treasurer, provost and dean.
Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique and English Department Chairperson Rubina Khan have expressed their condolences at Professor Ahsanul Haque’s death.
