Bangladeshi President Zillur Rahman dies at age of 84: Officials

The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, has passed away after a long illness, at a hospital in Singapore.

AFP quoted Bangladesh High Commissioner in Singapore M. Mahbubuzzaman as saying on Wednesday: “The president died at a hospital here in Singapore at 6.47 (10:47 GMT) pm local time.”
Rahman, who had been sick with kidney failure and critical lung infection, was flown to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital on February 10 after his condition aggravated.
Son of the lawyer Meher Ali Milan, who was the chairman of the Mymensingh Local Board, the late president joined the Bangali Language Movement in 1952.
He started his career in politics as a member of parliament in the 1970 national elections of Pakistan and was sentenced to jail during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan.
Following the assassination of the country’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Zillur Rahman was arrested by the army, and spent four years in prison. He was a close ally and friend of Sheikh Mujib.
Sheikh Mujib was the father of current Bangladeshi Premier Sheikh Hasina.
Zillur Rahman also served as a minister in the Awami League government between 1996 and 2001.
The deceased president was elected by parliament in February 2009. He got married to Ivy Rahman, also a politician.