Prof Arefin mourns death of Pranab Mukherjee

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DHAKA, Aug 31, 2020 (BSS) – Dhaka University former Vice-Chancellor Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique has expressed profound shock and sorrow at the death of ex-President of India Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away this evening at a Delhi hospital at the age of 84.

In a condolence message, he said Pranab Mukherjee, the subcontinent’s seasoned politician and one of the India’s most admired political leaders, was a true friend of Bangladesh.

Since the 1971 Liberation War until his death, the veteran politician always thought about the welfare of the people of Bangladesh, he added.

Prof Arefin, also chairman of board of directors of national news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), said while serving as the finance minister, foreign minister and later the president of India, Mukherjee always made the Bangladesh-India relations from strong to stronger.

The former vice-chancellor of DU also termed Mukherjee as a true friend of the university saying the veteran politician extended cooperation to DU by approving different projects funded by the India and visited several times at the university as well.

Recalling Mukherjee’s visits to the DU, Prof Arefin said he delivered a lecture at the university’s 47th convocation in 2013 as the convocation speaker while the university conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree on him for his noteworthy contributions to Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

“In his speech, when he was talking about the Liberation War, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh-India relations, we returned to 1971 and the time of Bangabandhu as well,” he recalled.

The death of a peace-loving person like Mukherjee is not only a loss to India or Bangladesh rather an irreparable loss to the entire world, he said.

The ex-VC prayed for salvation of the departed soul and conveyed deep sympathy to bereaved family.