Former member of parliament and Ekushey Padak-winning poet Quazi Rosy has died at the age of 74, bdnews24.com reports.
She passed away at 2:30 am on Sunday morning while receiving treatment at Square Hospital in Dhaka.
Rosy was admitted to the hospital on Jan 30 after contracting COVID, according to her daughter Sumi Sikander.
“After contracting the coronavirus, she had multiple organ failure and a stroke,” she said. “She was then placed on life support.”
President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have presented their condolences at the passing of the former MP.
“In her writings, Quazi Rosy helped spread the ideals of the great Liberation War,” President Hamid said in a statement. “She also played an important role in the trials against the war crimes of 1971.”
Quazi Rosy was born in Satkhira on Jan 1, 1949. She received undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Bangla Literation from Dhaka University.
She worked at the Department of Information and Department of Film and Publications for a long time before retiring in 2007 and joining politics.
She was elected to a reserved seat for women in the Tenth National Parliament in 2014. She was a member of the Parliamentary Library Committee.
For her contributions to poetry, she received the Bangla Academy Prize for Literature in 2018 and the Ekushey Padak in 2021.
She was also a witness in the war crimes case against then Jamaat-e Islami politician Abdul Quader Molla at the International Crimes Tribunal.
Rosy will be laid to rest at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals Graveyard, her daughter said.
