People in their thousands poured in to join the Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayers) for Zainul Haque Sikder, a valiant freedom fighter, leading industrialist and philanthropist, held in the capital’s Rayerbazar.
Immediately before the post-Juhr prayer Namaz-e-Janaza, Zainul Haque Sikder was given a guard of honour by the state for his role in the War of Liberation in 1971.
A team of police personnel led by a magistrate of the Dhaka district administration gave the guard of honour at the Balurmath on the premises of Sikder real estate project near ZH Sikder Women’s Medical College and Hospital.
During the guard of honour, the coffin of Zainul Haque Sikder, who was a close associate of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was covered with the national flag of Bangladesh.
Zainul Haque Sikder was the Chairman of Sikder Group of Companies and National Bank Limited.
Before the Janaza, his wife Monowara Sikder, daughter Parveen Haque Sikder MP, sons Rick Haque Sikder and Ron Haque Sikder expressed their sorrow and pain at the death of Zainul Haque Sikder. They sought blessings for the deceased.
They told the people joining the Janaza that Zainul Haque Sikder always worked for the country and the welfare of the people. He never thought anything for himself.
Relatives, friends, well wishers, all the directors of Sikder Group of Companies, top officials of all the concerns of the group and their officials and employees also took part in the funeral prayer.
The attendees included Deputy Speaker of the National Parliament Fazle Rabbi Miah, Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Deputy Minister of Water Resources AKM Enamul Haque Shamim.
A number of lawmakers, businessmen and prominent personalities paid their highest tributes to Zainul Haque Sikder by placing floral wreaths.
Zainul Haque Sikder passed away on Wednesday (February 10) at a hospital in Dubai while he was undergoing treatment. He was 91. His body arrived in Bangladesh on Friday by a chartered aircraft.
Form the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, his body was taken to ZH Sikder Women’s Medical College and Hospital at Gulshan and then to his residence in Dhanmondi.
The body of ZH Sikder is scheduled to be flown today to his village home at Bhedarganj in Shariatpur where he will be laid to rest beside the grave of his mother after another Namaz-e-Janaza there.
An entrepreneur of a rare genre, he was born on August 12 in 1930 in Assam in undivided India and migrated to present-day Bangladesh with his family during the partition in 1947.
He was one of those who contributed greatly to the development and progress of Bangladesh. He established a large number of business ventures in the fields of education, health, housing and tourism and employed about 20,000 people in the last seven decades.
Apart from establishing business entities, Zainul Haque Sikder helped create numerous entrepreneurs. He extended helping hand to many leading entrepreneurs of the country during their initial days of establishing businesses.
He is well-known as a philanthropist too. Besides founding schools, colleges and hospitals, he extended support to efforts for poverty reduction and welfare of the underprivileged and marginal people of society.
Zainul Haque Sikder had been with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as one of his close and trustworthy associates since 1945.
President Md Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Cabinet members, political leaders, business leaders, and other dignitaries expressed condolence at his death.
