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Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury: As I knew him

Harun ur Rashid
ZAGLUL Ahmed Chowdhury's tragic demise in a road accident on November 29 was the most heart wrenching piece of news for me. I never thought that I would have to write his obituary; I was much senior in age.
Although he was from Sylhet, he was raised in Dhaka and had lived his entire life in Dhaka, and in that sense he was more of a "Dhakaiya" than many.
I have known Zaglul for more than 35 years. The last time I met him was on September 21 this year when I invited him for a get-together at my place. Whenever I invited him, he invariably attended in spite of his busy schedule in the evening with the talk-shows.
I came to know him first in New Delhi where he was posted as a BSS representative and I used to visit New Delhi for bilateral negotiations with Indian officials as Director General, South Asia in the Bangladesh Foreign Office. He used to come to me to know about the outcome of the bilateral negotiations. Soon he was able to win my confidence and I used to brief him off-the record, which he never divulged to the media.
When I was Additional Foreign Secretary in 1986, he used to visit my office quite often. He was conscientious, hardworking and had a knack for asking tough questions. Zaglul had his own style of reporting and earned respect among the journalists in New Delhi. It is not surprising that he was a member of the executive committee of Foreign Correspondents' Club in New Delhi.
Zaglul was a prolific writer and contributed to Bangla and English newspapers on issues, mostly on South Asia. He was proficient in both the languages and wrote articles in a manner understood easily by the readers. He wrote on contemporary topics on South Asia and on subjects which were of great interests to the readers. He wrote on the hot topics and his analyses were penetrating and objective.
He became the managing director and the chief editor of BSS in 2006. He was also associated with prominent foreign media outlets such as Time magazine, Times of India, ABC News and Qatar News. He was elected to the post of secretary general of BFUJ in 1977. At the time of his death he was the consulting editor of the Financial Express, Dhaka.
Zaglul had once represented Bangladesh at the UN General Assembly where he addressed the Special Political Committee. This committee usually deals with a group of issues related to Palestinian refugees
and human rights, peacekeeping, mine action, outer space, public information, atomic radiation and the so-called University for Peace. But it is precisely this eclectic spectrum that has led to the committee's temporal elasticity. Since Bangladesh has the largest number of peacekeepers in the UN peacekeeping missions, this committee assumed importance for Bangladesh and other nations interested in international peace and order.
Zaglul led a modest and simple life and a journalist of his status would not hesitate to ride a public transport although he had a personal car. He had a good sense of humour and was a great story-teller. He was highly receptive to the thoughts and ideas of others.
Among the books he wrote was Global Flashpoints: South Asia and the Middle East, and at the launching of the book I was one of the guests who spoke about the relevance and importance of
the issues of book he had covered.
He rarely missed an opportunity to emphasise the source of his strength -his family. He has left behind his wife, a son, and a daughter who lives in the US. I pray to Allah for their courage and fortitude to bear this irreparable personal loss.
Zaglul's untimely demise is a serious blow to objective journalism. He judged journalists by their moral courage to write on national issues for readers benefit. Although he has left the mortal world, he will be a source of inspiration to many journalists and to those who knew him closely.
Let me end with a George Eliot quote: “Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them." We will not forget Zaglul. He will remain with us forever.
The writer is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.