Veteran lawyer and BNP leader Khandaker Mahbub Hossain has died at the age of 84 from old-age complications.
AZM Zahid Hossain, a BNP vice-chairman, said the doctors at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka declared Mahbub, who was also a vice-chairman of the party, dead at 10:45pm on Saturday.
He had been elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association several times and worked as a vice-chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council.
He was on life support for several days after being hospitalised on Dec 28 with pneumonia.
Family members said the doctors put him on ventilator support on Wednesday after his blood pressure dropped.
Mahbub was also suffering from issues related to heart, blood pressure and kidney.
He is survived by his wife Farat Hossain, two sons and a daughter.
Born at Bamna in Barguna on Mar 20, 1938, Mahbub received his higher secondary education in Narayanganj, where he was arrested for joining the 1952 Language Movement.
After passing matriculation exams, he studied at Notre Dame College in Dhaka and then at Dhaka University’s law department. He was arrested again during protests against Pakistani ruler Ayub Khan.
He began his career as a lawyer after passing LLB in 1964. He was enlisted as a High Court lawyer in 1966.
Mahbub had been the chief prosecutor of the war crimes court formed after independence, but was criticised for representing war criminals in the tribunal formed 40 years after independence.
As a relative of Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah, founding editor of the daily Ittefaq, he had good political connections. He actively joined politics in 2008 with the BNP.