Thousands of people attended the funeral prayers of veteran Awami League politician Tofail Ahmed.

His second funeral prayer was held at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Bhola Government Boys’ High School ground.

Before the funeral, several leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) student and youth wings—Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal—staged a protest in Bhola.

The protesters demanded that the funeral prayer not be held on the school grounds and that Awami League leaders should not be allowed to participate in the ceremony.

However, senior BNP leaders arrived at the scene and persuaded the protesting Chhatra Dal and Jubo Dal activists to leave the area.

Local journalists reported that several thousand people attended the funeral prayers.

Participants included leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliated organizations, BNP members, and people from various professions and walks of life.

Earlier, at around 11:45 a.m., Tofail Ahmed’s body was flown from Dhaka to Bhola by helicopter.

His body was then transported by ambulance to the Bhola Government Boys’ High School ground.

Following the funeral prayers, he was scheduled to be buried beside the graves of his parents in Koralia village of Sadar Upazila.

Tofail Ahmed died on Monday at around 3:30 p.m. while undergoing treatment at Square Hospital in Dhaka. He was 81.

During the turbulent era of student politics in the 1960s, Tofail Ahmed emerged as one of the key leaders of the 1969 mass uprising through his active involvement in various political movements and struggles.

Later, as one of the organizers of Bangladesh’s Liberation War, he became a prominent and influential leader of the Awami League and remained a powerful figure in the country’s politics throughout independent Bangladesh.

( source :  BBC Bangla)