UNB, Chattogram :
Eminent litterateur and freedom fighter Begum Mushtari Shafi, also known as “Shaheedjaya” (wife of a martyr), was laid to rest with state honours at Chaitanyagali graveyard, Chattogram Wednesday.
Earlier, her namaz-e-janaza was held at Jamiatul Falah National Mosque Ground after Zuhr prayers.
Thousands of people including, eminent personalities, political leaders, social and
cultural activists attended the janaza. People from all walks of life paid their last respects to Begum Mushtari at the Central Shaheed Minar in Chattogram at 11:30am. A team of Chattogram Metropolitan Police gave a guard of honour to the freedom fighter there.
Freedom fighters Nurul Absar, Balagat Ullah; woman leader Nurjahan Khan, Professor Rita Dutta, dramatist Ahmed Iqbal Haider, writer Anwara Alam, and poets Ashish Sen, Abul Momen paid homage to Begum Mushtari, along with a host of other people.
Monday, Begum Mushtari, also president of Udichi Shilpigosthi Chattogram unit, breathed her last at 5pm at Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka.
The 84-year-old was undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the hospital for various complications, including kidney and blood infections.
Born on January 15, 1938, in West Bengal, Begum Mushtari participated in the 1952 Language Movement. Her ancestral home is in the Faridpur district.
In the 1960s, she founded the women’s organisation called Bandhabi Sangha in Chattogram.
From this organisation, she published a regular magazine, “Bandhabi,” and started a printing house called Meyeder Press, which were considered as remarkable activities at a time when examples of women activism were rare in society.
Her husband doctor Mohammad Shafi and younger brother Ehsanul Haque Ansari were assassinated by the Pakistani military on April 7, 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
With that deep grief in her heart, Mushtari worked at Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra as a voice artiste, till December 16, 1971, to inspire the freedom fighters.
She preserved the memories and her experiences of the Liberation War in some of her notable books – “Women of Chittagong in the War of Liberation,” “Letter to Jahanara Imam,” and “Swadhinata Amar Roktojhora Din”
For her outstanding role during the Liberation War, the Bangla Academy awarded Mushtari a fellowship in 2016. She also received the state award Rokeya Padak in literature last year.
