Veteran Awami League leader and freedom fighter Tofail Ahmed has been kept on life support or clinically dead at Square Hospital due to indecision over his burial.
Although the hospital sources confirmed the news of his death, it is not possible to remove the life support due to the indecisiveness of the family.
Sources said that the government is exerting a lot of pressure to perform his funeral and burial at Banani graveyard, but the family wants to take his body to his own district, Bhola.
According to a family source, before his death, nine-time parliamentarian Tofail Ahmed, 82, expressed his wish to be buried next to his mother at the family graveyard in Bhola.
But the government wants his funeral and burial to be done on a limited scale (in the presence of about 100 people) at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka. The government is giving such instructions due to the fear of a huge crowd if the funeral is held in Bhola, as seen in the case of freedom fighter and former minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun.
In the face of this pressure, his family is not able to provide any clear information about where he will be buried. The family has only said that the decision will be announced later.
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This situation is being compared with the funeral of Humayun of Narsingdi. After the death of Humayun at Dhaka Medical College Hospital under police custody, the government created pressure to conduct his namaz-e-janaza on a limited scale.
The deceased’s son, Manzurul Majid Sadi, complained to the journalists that the Yunus regime did not allow the news of the death to be announced on the loudspeaker in the area. The local administration also prevented the family from addressing the crowd at the funeral ground. Despite various administrative obstacles, hundreds of thousands of people attended his funeral that day.
On the night of September 29, Tofail Ahmedโs family members decided to remove life support, but after some time, they withdrew from that decision. They did not give any clear explanation. However, the family members say that due to various complications, they are not able to make the right decision at the right time.
Meanwhile, various misleading information are being spread on social media about the physical condition of this legendary politician. The news of his death has cast a shadow of mourning among the common people of Bhola and Awami League supporters, but no one is reacting publicly for fear of government pressure.
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Family sources also said that the final decision is being delayed as key decision-makers are hiding, and his nephew, former MP Ali Azam Mukul, is in jail. Moreover, many family members are not allowed to enter the hospital.
Eventful life
A shining star of student politics in the 1960s, a pioneer of the mass uprising of 1969 and a valiant freedom fighter of the Liberation War, Tofail Ahmed has been using a wheelchair for the past few years. It is reported that part of his body has become paralysed due to a stroke. He was under the regular supervision of a doctor.
Tofail Ahmed was last elected as a member of the parliament from the Bhola-1 constituency by a huge margin. He got 185,152 votes with the boat symbol while his closest rival, Jatiya Party candidate Md. Shahjahan Mia, received only 5,519 votes.
Tofail Ahmed used to live in his house called โPriyo Kutirโ when he visited Bhola. He conducted the partyโs political activities from the house. On February 6, the house located on Gazipur Road in Bhola Sadar was set on fire by the supporters of the fascist Yunus regime.
Tofail Ahmed was born in Koralia village, Dakshin Dighaldi Union, Sadar Upazila, Bhola on October 22, 1943. After passing his higher secondary exam from Brajmohan College, Barisal, he did his graduation and post-graduate degree in soil science from Dhaka University.
During the turbulent period of 1968-69, Tofail was the VP of DUCSU. As such, he served as the convener of the All-Party Studentsโ Struggle Council. He played a leading role in the student community during the mass uprising of 1969.
Due to the strong mass movement, the Pakistan government was forced to release all the accused in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1969. On February 23 of that year, the Central Studentsโ Struggle Council organised a public meeting at the Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.
Sheikh Mujib was awarded the title of โBangabandhuโ at that rally attended by millions of people. And that title was announced by Tofail Ahmed.
Tofail Ahmed won the 1970 election by contesting the National Assembly election on the Awami Leagueโs nomination. In the 1971 Liberation War, he was one of the four regional heads of Mujib Bahini.
After serving as the Awami Leagueโs Organising Secretary for a long time, Tofail Ahmed later became a member of the Presidium. He is currently a member of the partyโs Advisory Council.
After Bangladesh became independent in 1972, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman appointed Tofail Ahmed as his political secretary with the status of a state minister.
When the Awami League returned to power in 1996, Bangabandhuโs daughter, Sheikh Hasina, appointed Tofail as the Minister of Industry and Commerce in her government. Later, he served as the Minister of Commerce again from 2014 to 2019.
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