Zahir Raihan

(1935 - 1972)

Zahir Raihan was a prominent Bangladeshi novelist, writer and filmmaker. He is considered to be the greatest filmmaker of Bangladesh. He is most notable for his documentary Stop Genocide, made during the Bangladesh Liberation War. He was posthumously awarded Ekushey Padak in 1977 and Independence Day Award in 1992 by the Government of Bangladesh. Raihan disappeared on 30 January 1972 trying to locate his brother, a notable writer Shahidullah Kaiser, who was captured and killed by the Pakistan army and/or local collaborators during the final days of the liberation war. It is believed that he was killed with many others when armed Bihari collaborators and soldiers of the Pakistan Army who were hiding fired on them when they went to Mirpur, a suburb of the capital city of Dhaka that was one of few strongholds for Pakistani/Bihari collaborators at that time.