No More Obstacles
Grave of Ahmed Sofa to be Relocated to Intellectuals’ Graveyard After 25 Years
Bangladesh's prominent writer and thinker, Ahmed Sofa. Collected photo.
There is no longer any barrier to relocating the grave of writer and thinker Ahmed Sofa from the Mirpur General Graveyard to the Intellectuals' Graveyard. The Dhaka District Administration has already issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) in this regard.
Nurul Anwar, nephew of Ahmed Sofa, told Agamir Somoy: "There is no longer any obstacle to moving writer Ahmed Sofa's grave from the Mirpur General Graveyard to the Mirpur Shaheed Muktijoddha Graveyard (Martyred Freedom Fighters' Graveyard)."
He said the process was initiated during the previous interim government. After the current government took office, it was approved. Although a decision regarding the relocation of Ahmed Sofa's grave was made at a meeting of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) about two months ago, it was being delayed because of pending approval by the Dhaka District Administration. Recently, the no-objection certificate was obtained from the District Administration as well. Nurul Anwar now hopes that the grave will be relocated soon.
After Ahmed Sofa's death, he was buried in a common grave in Mirpur. Nurul Anwar said that due to the apathy of the then-government, Ahmed Sofa—despite being a freedom fighter—was not granted permission to be buried in the Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard.
He further said: "The common grave was allocated for 99 years. That grave will be demolished after the stipulated period. That is why we requested that his grave be relocated to the section reserved for intellectuals. The application was made so that the writer's grave could be preserved permanently."
Earlier, in May, essayist and educator Salimullah Khan had told Agamir Somoy: "Is Ahmed Sofa not an intellectual? Then why was he not buried in the intellectuals' graveyard? This was an injustice. Now that injustice is being rectified."
After Ahmed Sofa's death on 28 July 2001, it was not possible to bury him in the Intellectuals' Graveyard due to the non-cooperation of the then-administration. The process was initiated during the previous interim government, and the current government is carrying it forward. "For that, I thank them," he added.
