Poet Mohammad Rafiq passes away

Ekushey Padak-winning poet, essayist and freedom fighter Poet Mohammad Rafiq has passed away on Sunday night. He was 80.

He breathed his last at around 10pm at Rajoir of Barishal while returning Dhaka, said Mohammad Tareq, brother of the poet.

The body of the poet will not be brought to Dhaka, said Tareq, adding that his brother's body is being taken to his village home in Bagerhat where he will be buried.

In the early 1960s, Mohammad Rafiq rose to fame as a poet. Baishakhi Purnima, his debut collection of poems, was published in 1970. Following that, his Dhular Sangsare Ei Mati was released in 1976.

Kirtinasha, Khola Kabita o Kapila, Gaodiya, Swadeshi Nihshaws Tumimay, Meghe Ebong Kaday, Roopkatha Kingbadanty, Matsyagandhya, Bishkhali Sandhya, Nirbachita Kabita, Kalapani, Nonajhau, Mohammad Rafiq Rachanabali 1, 2 and This Path: Selected Poems of Mohammad Rafiq are some of his noted literary works.

Rafiq was born in 1943 in the village of Baitpur, Bagerhat.

He bagged the Alaol Literary Award in 1981. He also won the Bangla Academy Award in 1987 and the Zebunnessa Mohbubullah Trust Award in 1991.

Rafiq taught at both Chittagong College and Dhaka College. He retired in 2009 after working for three decades at the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University.

/MHK/