General Manager of Evercare Hospital Arif Mahmud and former minister and relative of Matia Chowdhury Mustafa Jamal Haider said that 82-year-old Matia Chowdhury was ill for several days. He was taken home from the hospital a few days ago. Arif said that he had a cardiac arrest at home this morning. Matia Chowdhury was immediately admitted to the hospital. He breathed his last at around 1 pm while undergoing treatment.
Matia Chowdhury, known as 'Fire Girl' in Bangladesh politics, was born on June 30, 1942 in Pirojpur. He served as minister of Bangladesh several times. This year also, he was elected as an MP from Sherpur-2 constituency in the 12th National Assembly elections.
Matia Chowdhury's political career began with left-wing politics. During the 1960s, he was jailed several times for actively participating in the student-jat movement against Ayub Khan. In 1965 he became the president of Bangladesh Students Union. He worked actively during the liberation war in Bangladesh. After the formation of independent Bangladesh, Matia Chowdhury joined the Awami League. He was arrested several times during the regime of Ziaur Rahman and Hussain Muhammad Ershad.
He served as the Minister of Agriculture in Bangladesh in 1996, 2009 and 2014. This year, he took charge as the deputy leader of the National Parliament. Sheikh Hasina's government fell in August. Soon after Hasina left Bangladesh, she lost her parliamentary post when the national parliament was dissolved there. Since then he was ill.
Bangla Academy awarded him an honorary fellowship in 2021 for his special contribution to Bangladesh's independence war.
