Daughter dies as Ctg mayor on flight

Bdnews24.com . Chittagong

Fawzia Sultana Tumpa, daughter of Chittagong city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, died in Bangkok on Friday afternoon while her parents were on a flight to Thailand to see her, said Mohiuddin’s family members.
‘Her life-support machine was taken off at about 3:30pm [Bangladesh time],’ the mayor’s nephew, Mesbahuddin Chowdhury Nobel, told reporters.
The mayor had just left for Bangkok Friday afternoon to see his ailing daughter, already declared clinically dead by doctors.
Tumpa, an English student at Premier University, Chittagong, was undergoing treatment at a Bangkok hospital for cancer.
Nobel told reporters that a few minutes before Mohiuddin’s flight left, news had arrived that Tumpa had been put on a life-support machine.
‘Just before the Bangkok flight left, uncle Mohiuddin received news that Tumpa had been clinically dead and put on a life-support system,’ said Nobel.
‘A totally shattered soul, he still asked Bangkok to keep Tumpa on the life-support system and left.’
The Thai Airways flight carrying the mayor left Shah Amanat International Airport at about 2:30pm, mayor’s lawyer Ibrahim Hossain Babul told the news agency.
Mohiuddin was accompanied by his wife Hasina Mohiuddin and son Noufel.
Awami League leader Mohiuddin was released on October 8 after being bailed in all the 15 cases against him. He had been detained for a year and seven months.
Following a formal petition, the government gave him permission on October 15 to go abroad.
‘I’m going to Bangkok. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see my daughter alive,’ Mohiuddin told reporters before departure.
Calling upon the government to release all political leaders, Mohiuddin said, ‘Nothing can be gained by persecuting the politicians.’
‘I’ve instructed the Chittagong City Corporation councillors to discharge their responsibilities duly, though I heard that a lot of irregularities had occurred at the CCC while I was away.’
Though freed on bail, Mohiuddin was not allowed to return to his mayoral office. He wrote to the government, asking for a reason.
The government, meanwhile, is weighing the legal options.
‘The mayor’s letter has been forwarded to the law ministry for comment,’ local government adviser Anwarul Iqbal told reporters.
‘The local government ministry will take steps based on the comment from the law ministry,’ the adviser said.
CCC councillor Manzur Alam has been the acting mayor in absence of Mohiuddin.
The mayor faced 22 cases, of which three were quashed by the court and final reports have been submitted for four.