Abdullah Al-Noman, a veteran leader who is resting in his family graveyard in Gahira, Raozan Upazila, his birthplace.

Abdullah Al Noman, the famous ‘politician’s groom’, touched Chittagong’s favorite premises for the last time on his final journey. Wherever he went in his coffin in the city of memories, people were filled with tears. From the old man leaning on a stick to the young man, everyone’s eyes were filled with tears.

In the meantime, the emotional speech of his son, Sayed Al Noman, about his father touched the hearts of all the mourners. Above politics and party affiliation, right-left-centrist, non-communal, and regardless of religion – he received the love and respect of everyone on his last journey. In this way, Abdullah Al Noman, taking his last farewell, decorated a three-and-a-half-foot earthen bed for his eternal sleep.

On Friday (February 28), lakhs of people gathered at the funeral of Abdullah Al Noman at the premises of the Jamiatul Falah National Mosque in the city. The queue of people crossed the ground and reached the surrounding roads.

In a brief recollection before the funeral, BNP Standing Committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said, “Noman Bhai is a complete politician. He did student politics, labor politics, and farmer politics. This is how he became a leader of the masses. We did politics together. We did movements and struggles. I pay my deepest respect to Noman Bhai.”

Sayed Al Noman addressed everyone present in a tearful voice, “My father’s politics is 68 years old.  Chittagong was his meditation. My father also had pain and pride in various political issues, but he never expressed it. Rather, he kept his own and was anxious about the pain and pride of the leaders and activists. “You will never find him again to tell you about any pain or any pride. Your brother Noman is gone forever.”

Before the funeral, Chittagong North District BNP Convener Golam Akbar Khondakar, Central Organizing Secretary Mahbuber Rahman Shamim, Chittagong City Corporation Mayor Dr. Shahadat Hossain and several other leaders spoke.

In the morning, Abdullah Al-Noman’s body was first taken to the Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, the university in which Noman played a leading role. There, teachers, officials, students and employees of the university paid tribute.

From there, Noman’s body was taken to the East Delta University premises he founded. Teachers and students paid tribute there.

Then, Noman, in his coffin, returned to Nasimon Bhaban, his favorite premises for half a century of politics as a BNP leader. Noman has held thousands and thousands of meetings and rallies standing on the stage in the grounds of the party office on Nur Ahmed Road in the city. He has initiated millions of workers into politics. When he came to that premises for the last time, the leaders and activists welcomed him with tearful eyes. Ershad Ullah, convener of Chittagong Metropolitan BNP, received the body. On behalf of the Metropolitan BNP and various ward-station and branch organizations, tributes were paid to Noman’s body.

BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury paid tribute and said, ‘Under the leadership of Noman Bhai, we have done politics in Chittagong Metropolitan. In Chittagong politics, we have worked together on the streets in the movement and struggle. We have taken shelter in this Nasimon Bhaban after being attacked by the police and subjected to tear gas.’

“He has left a bright role in the anti-Sheikh Hasina movement, anti-fascist movement, and before that, in the anti-Ershad movement. We are indebted to his contribution to Chittagong politics. If Noman Bhai had been healthy, if he had lived for a few more days, our future politics, especially the context we have found today, would have been another turning point. We needed his contribution at this time.”

Then Saeed Al Noman said to the party leaders and activists, ‘You will no longer be able to reach him with any arrogance. There was a lot of competition in politics, you will not be able to compete with Abdullah Al Noman. If he has any sorrow or pride of his own, you will not know it anymore. I am drowning in an unbearable persecution. What have I been able to do for him as a child. I can write it here today, I am asking myself, you should also ask yourself today. Those of you who have known him for a long time, ask yourselves – what I have done for Noman Bhai and what Noman Bhai has done for me.”

‘If I am a child and fall into this question, you are also his children, sometimes you were his dearest child than me. From the place of a political disciple, from the place of a political colleague, from the place of a political comrade, the child was you.

He said, “If anyone in Chittagong thinks of making an institution universal, regardless of party, opinion, or religion, rising above personal concerns, it is only Abdullah Al Noman. That is why people from countless non-sectarian organizations, whom no one else can even think of, have come to see him since his death, thousands of people. In politics, there is an opposite side, inside the party, and outside it, of course. But if you follow social media for the last three days after Abdullah Al Noman’s death, you will see that millions of people, regardless of which party he belongs to, have given him a status. There is no other person in Bangladesh with such an example.

If something has to be done for people, the best way is politics. Abdullah Al Noman was created by people. The person who is lying down today is an extraordinary politician as well as an extraordinary person. One person, Abdullah Al Noman, is above all politics, above MPs, above ministers, a person for whom the whole of Chittagong, the whole country is crying,’ said Saeed Al Noman.

From Nasimon Bhaban to Jamiatul Falah, there was a stream of mourners everywhere. After the funeral at Jamiatul Falah Maidan, Noman’s body was taken to his birthplace, Gahira village in Raozan upazila. After another funeral at Gahira High School ground, he will be laid to rest in the family graveyard there.

Veteran politician Abdullah Al Noman passed away at his residence in Dhanmondi in the capital on the early hours of February 25.

Abdullah Al Noman’s colorful political life. In 1962, a student movement was formed against the Hamidur Rahman Education Commission formed by the Pakistani government. As an activist of that movement, he joined the East Pakistan Student Union. That was the beginning of his path to communist politics. In 1965, the world communist movement split into two camps. Abdullah Al Noman joined the pro-Chinese section of the Students’ Union, known as the Menonist section. He was the president and central organizing secretary of the organization’s Greater Chittagong section.

Noman was a front-line organizer in Chittagong during the 1960s uprising. After the end of student politics, he joined labor politics. Before that, however, he came into contact with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani. Noman was made the vice-president of the East Bengal Labor Federation. He was also active in the politics of the pro-Bhasani NAP. In 1970, he was made the central organizing secretary of NAP.

Abdullah Al Noman played a heroic role in the 1971 Liberation War. In the late 1970s, ‘Bhasani NAP’ merged with former President Ziaur Rahman’s Jagdal. In 1981, NAP leader Abdullah Al Noman joined the BNP under the leadership of Ziaur Rahman. He remained with the party until his death. He was last the party’s vice chairman. In the 1980s and 1990s, and for at least a decade after that, BNP politics in Chittagong revolved around Abdullah Al Noman.

Abdullah Al Noman was elected as a member of parliament from the Kotwali constituency of Chittagong in 1991 and 2001. He served as a member of the BNP cabinet both times. In 2008, he contested from the Double Mooring-Halishahar constituency.