Language movement veteran Ahmed Rafiq is critically ill and is undergoing treatment at the LabAid Hospital in the capital.
He was admitted to the hospital's Coronary Care Unit around 12:30am on Sunday night.
The 98-year-old is suffering from kidney-related complications and uncontrolled diabetes, doctors said.
He has become very weak due to high blood pressure and heart rate, they added, saying that an electrolyte imbalance may have caused the illness.
However, LabAid authorities have taken full responsibility for his treatment.
LabAid Group Chairman A.M. Shamim told reporters that Ahmad Rafiq the hospital will bear all expenses, and once he returns home, weekly health checkups will be arranged of his treatment.
According to Rafiq's longtime assistant Abul Kalam, the language hero has been struggling with multiple health issues for years, and his condition began deteriorating after he broke his leg in 2021.
He also lost his eyesight almost completely by 2023, which forced him to stop writing and caused him mental distress.
Abul Kalam said that last month, Ahmed Rafiq was admitted to another hospital in Moghbazar for a week, but since then, he has lost the ability to move by himself.
"The Ministry of Cultural Affairs provided him with financial assistance a few months ago," Kalam said.
Rafiq currently lives in a rented house in New Eskaton with only his personal assistant and a driver. He has no children. His wife died in 2006.
Ahmad Rafiq was born on September 12, 1929, in Brahmanbaria. During the 1952 Language Movement, Rafiq was a third-year medical student at Dhaka Medical College (DMC) and was actively involved in rallies and demonstrations with the students of Fazlul Huq Hall, Dhaka Hall, and Mitford. He was the only student activist against whom an arrest warrant was issued in 1954.
Although he obtained an MBBS degree but Rafiq did not pursue medicine as a profession.
Rafiq's first collection of essays, Shilpo Shongskriti Jibon (Art, Culture, Life), was published in 1958. Since then, he has authored and edited over a hundred books on poetry, essays, research, and the history of the Language Movement.
His most recent works, Bharat-Pakistan Bangladesh Kotha and Shilpo-Shongskritir Boishishto, were published in the 2023 Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
He was widely respected in Bangladesh and West Bengal as a Rabindra scholar.
Rafiq was awarded the title "Rabindratattwacharya" by a research institution in Kolkata.
He has received numerous honours, including the Ekushey Padak and the Bangla Academy Award.
News of the physical deterioration of Ahmad Rafiq has sparked deep concern among cultural figures and well-wishers across the country.
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