Bangladesh PM's husband dead

Dhaka, May 9 (IANS) M.A. Wazed Miah, husband of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, died Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was 67.

Hasina was at his bedside when the end came around 4.25 p.m., at the Square Hospital, a private nursing home, prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad said.

Miah had been battling several ailments, including high blood pressure, renal failure, diabetes and asthma for the past one year. His condition deteriorated after 2 p.m., doctors said.

His body was taken to the Sudha Sadan, their private residence. The burial will take place at the family graveyard, Star Online said.

Hand-picked by Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who went on to found free Bangladesh in 1971, Miah was married to her in 1968.

The family spent nearly six years in New Delhi after Sheikh Mujib, then the country's president, and most of the family members were killed in a military putsch in August 1975.

The couple has son Sajeeb Wazed 'Joy', who lives in the US and daughter Saima Wazed Hossain 'Putul', who is based in Canada.

Wazed, a nuclear scientist and former chief of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, had earlier received treatment in New Delhi and Singapore.

He lived a quiet life after retirement at Sudha Sadan. He was also known among relatives and friends as 'Sudha Miah'.

He received his doctorate in nuclear physics from Imperial College London.

He authored many books like 'Fundamentals of Thermodynamics' and 'Fundamentals of Electromagnetics'.