Zafrullah Chy was forerunner in struggle against water aggression: Farakka Committee
The International Farakka Committee (IFC) in a statement issued on Thursday deeply condoled the death of valiant freedom fighter and founder of Gonoshasthya Kendra Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury and said that a sentinel of independence and sovereignty, he was a forerunner in the struggle against water aggression.
IFC leaders said Dr. Chowdhury used to take part in discussion meetings, seminars, street-corner meetings, demonstrations and long marches organized by the Farakka Committee against water aggression with a deep commitment from his heart and make important remarks.
Of particular mention was his participation in the anti-water aggression long march to Chilmari from Dhaka and the rally of at least one million people held there on March 4, 2005. It was the largest rally of people deprived of the right to water in the northern part of Bangladesh.
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Nurses and paramedics of Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury offered emergency medical service to the people who gathered at the rally while his mechanics maintained the motor vehicles that were used in the long march.
They said Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury served the ailing people all his life starting from the field hospital during the War of Liberation 1971 to the Gonoshasthya Kendra in Savar and the Gonoshasthya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka.
The National Drug Policy framed by him in 1982 brought life-saving medicines to the reach of the common people and led to the growth of the local Pharmaceuticals Industry.
As a result Bangladesh has turned into one of the drug exporting countries of the world, IFC leaders said.
In Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury's death the people of Bangladesh have lost a genuine friend, and this loss is irreparable.
The signatories to the statement are: Atiqur Rahman Salu, chairman, Sayed Tipu Sultan, secretary general, IFC New York; Prof. Jasim Uddin Ahmad, president, Dr. S.I. Khan, senior vice-president, Irfanul Bari, general secretary, IFC Bangladesh; and Mostafa Kamal Majumder, convener, IFC.
