DHAKA, May 19, 2023 (BSS) - Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today said veteran politician Pankaj Bhattacharya, Oikya NAP president and one of the organisers of the country's Liberation War, did politics by risking his life as he took politics as a 'mantra'.
 
He was addressing a civic memorial meeting on Pankaj Bhattacharya, who died on April 24 last, at the National Museum at Shahbagh here. 

Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary, joined it on behalf of the party. 

"Many people forget that politics is a vow, but Pankaj Bhattacharya took politics as a vow. He worked for what he believed in all his life. This man who was totally non-communal was the leader of every democratic movement in the country. He suffered a lot of tortures," he said.

The minister said: "Genuine politicians in our country have to take life risk in doing politics."

He said a politician here always has to remain alert about facing grenade attack or shooting and Pankaj Bhattacharya did so.
 
"Pankaj Bhattacharya showed how a politician should be and he will remain alive among us as that example," he said.

Historian Dr. Syed Anwar Husain chaired the programme while Gono Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain, Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon, rights activist Advocate Sultana Kamal, Liberation War Trustee Dr Sarwar Ali, cultural personality Ramendu Majumder, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Shah Alam, Bangladesh JSD President Sharif Nurul Ambia,

Bangladesh Shanti Parishad President and Awami League Advisory Council Member Mozaffar Hossain Paltu, Samyabadi Dal General Secretary Dilip Barua, Oikya NAP Presidium Member Advocate SMA Sabur, Jatiya Press Club General Secretary Shyamal Dutta and senior journalist Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul addressed the memorial meeting.

Pankaj Bhattacharya was born on August 6, 1939 in Noapara village of Raozan Upazila of Chattogram. He spent his education life in Chattogram and Dhaka.
 
He was an eyewitness, a leading worker and organizer of all the movements and struggles of Bangladesh starting from the student movement of the 60s of the last century to the liberation war and the subsequent ones.

In 1966, he was accused in the 'Independent Bengal Conspiracy' case and imprisoned. 

Pankaj Bhattacharya was the organizer of the NAP-Chhatra Union-Communist Party guerrilla force in the Liberation War. 

After independence, he served as the General Secretary of Bangladesh National Awami Party for a long time. In 2013, he founded a political party called Oikya NAP.