Dhaka: Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) and Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) on Friday expressed deep shock at the demise of Language Movement hero, senior journalist and scriptwriter Zainul Abedin.

In separate condolence messages, DRU president Sakhawat Hossain Badsha and general secretary Morsalin Nomani, and DCAB president Rezaul Karim Lotus and general secretary Pantho Rahman prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and expressed sympathy to his bereaved family members.

Zainul Abedin, a founding member of the Jatiya Press Club and a permanent member of DRU, breathed his last at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in the city around 9pm on Thursday. He was 81.

His first namaz-e-janaja was held on the JPC premises on Friday morning where journalists paid their last respects to him, said a DRU press release.

A Non-Bangali, Zainul Abedin was imprisoned after he wrote graffiti in Urdu in support of the demand to make Bangla as one of the state languages of then Pakistan in 1952.