Dhaka: Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu on Sunday described versatile poet and writer Syed Shamsul Haque as a ‘great soul’ as his works reflect the War of Liberation and free thinking, and said the government would ensure his best medical treatment.

‘Syed Haque is such a litterateur who portrayed the life story of human beings through his poems, novels, plays and essays,’ the information minister told reporters after visiting the poet at the United Hospital at Gulshan in the capital, reports BSS.

Inu, also the president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), spent some time beside the octogenarian poet who is undergoing treatment at the hospital for lung cancer, and talked to him, an official release said.

The minister also talked to the attending doctors and reiterated the commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to ensuring best medical treatment of the poet.

Inu also urged all to pray for the versatile writer and poet.

The minister's spouse Afroza Haque Rina and JSD cultural affairs secretary Nader Chowdhury were with the information minister.

Syed Haque returned home on 2 September after four months of medical treatment at Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

He went to London on 15 April to treat his ailing lungs, where tests detected cancer.

The 80-year-old writer won the Bangla Academy Award in 1966, Ekushey Padak in 1984 and Bangladesh's highest civilian honour, Independence Award, in 2000 for his outstanding contribution to Bangla literature.

His literary genius spreads across genres and he is known to wield equal mastery over essays, novel, poetry and plays.

Some of his best-known plays are considered milestones in the history of theatre in Bangladesh.