Shawdesh Desk:

The body of legendary actor Akbar Hossain Pathan Farooque, one of the most popular heroes of Bengali cinema, freedom fighter and Member of Parliament for Dhaka-17 Constituency, has reached Dhaka.

A special US-Bangla flight carrying the body landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 7:50am on Tuesday.

Farroque breathed his last at around 10am on Monday while undergoing treatment at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital. He had been receiving treatment at the hospital for the last two years.

He is known as ‘Mia Bhai’ to mass people and film industry. He appeared in over 150 films in a career spanning more than five decades. Most of his films were commercially and critically successful.

Farooque is one of the most recognizable stars of classical and golden era of Bangladeshi film industry.

His death has cast a shadow of mourning over the country’s film industry. His body will be brought home today (May 16).

“He will be taken to the Central Shaheed Minar around 11:00am. From there, he will be taken to Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) at around 12:30pm. Later, the namaz-e-janaza will take place after Zohr prayers”, Nipun Akter, general secretary of Bangladesh Film Artists Association said.

“Later, he will be taken to Gulshan Azad Mosque and following another namaz-e-janaza after Asr prayers, he will finally be taken to his birthplace in Kaliganj in Gazipur, where he will be buried,” she said.

Earlier, the US-Bangla flight took off at 5:40 a.m. Singapore local time and started its journey to Dhaka. Farooque’s body was taken out through gate number 8 of the airport at 8:30 am. Meanwhile, the leaders and activists of the Central Committee of the Bangabandhu Cultural Alliance raised slogans in front of the gate with mourning banners.