Online Desk: The body of Gonoshasthya Kendra founder and trustee Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury will be taken to Central Shaheed Minar in the capital at 10am on Thursday. There it will be kept till 1pm for people from all strata to pay their last respect. He will given guard of honour there.

Later, his body will be taken to Suhrawardy Udyan where his first namaj-e-janaza will be held. And the second one will be held at Gonoshshthay Kendra in Savar on Fiday after Jum’a prayer. Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury breathed his last at about 11.15pm on Tuesday while undergoing treatment at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in the capital. He had been suffering from kidney complications for a long time.

Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury was a well-known Bangladeshi physician and public health activist. He received his medical degree from Dhaka Medical College in 1966 and later received a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. He was in surgical training in London when the Liberation War of Bangladesh erupted in 1971. Hurrying home, he established a field hospital with his colleagues to treat battle casualties. In 1972, he founded Ganashasthaya Kendra with the aim of providing healthcare services to underserved communities in Bangladesh.

In 1985, he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Community Leadership category for “engineering Bangladesh’s new drug policy, eliminating unnecessary pharmaceuticals, and making comprehensive medical care more available to ordinary citizens”.

Dr Zafrullah had also been involved in various other social and political activities throughout his life and advocated for human rights, democracy, and social justice in Bangladesh. He has received numerous awards and honours for his contributions to public health and social welfare.