Exiled poet Daud Haider passes away

Exiled Bangladeshi poet Daud Haider passed away in Germany on Sunday early morning (27 April 2025) at the age of 73.

Daud Haider breathed his last at around 1:45am (Bangladesh time) while undergoing medical treatment at a senior care center in Berlin, media outlets alluding to his family members reported.

Daud Haider was suffering from different old age complications for several years. He sustained a head wound after falling on the staircase of his Berlin apartment in December 2024.

Daud Haider was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in Germany after that mishap. He was later released from the hospital but failed to fully recover from persistent illness. Born on 21 February 1952, Daud Haider was described as a distinguished poet by the American Center and International PEN (Poets, Editors and Novelists). He was forced to leave Bangladesh after writing a poem that allegedly hurt religious sentiments. In particular, his anti-establishment poem "Jonmoi Amar Ajonomo Paap" angered conservative readers and religious bigots during 1974 as a result of which the then Bangladesh President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ordered Daud Haider to move away from Bangladesh immediately.

Right after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's order to Daud Haider to leave Bangladesh, Daud Haider's ancestral households in Pabna were set on fire and one of his relatives was killed by unruly mobsters. Daud Haider first travelled to Kolkata, India. Later on, he migrated to Germany and started living in Berlin as an exiled poet.