Nabarangpur: Freedom fighter Mohammed Bazi breathed his last at his Sunari Sahi residence in this town at 10:15am Thursday following age related ailments. He was 103.
His nephews N Ahmad, Aktari Beg along with several other members of the family were at the death bed. Bazi was a lifelong bachelor.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter to pay his condolences after the news of his demise came to fore. https://twitter.com/Naveen_Odisha/status/1144142941641773056
As the day proceeded, a number of eminent personalities of the locality including collector Ajit Kumar Mishra, ADM Nimain Charan Sutar along with many government officials, political leaders and common people thronged his residence to pay their last tributes to the departed soul.
Later, he was led to rest with state honours in Nabarangpur.
Bazi was a student of freedom fighter and the then Chief Minister Sadashiva Tripathy at Jeypore High School.
Later he joined Congress after being inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s sermons. He was instrumental in his part of the state organising freedom fighters – going around from villages to villages. He was imprisoned several times during ‘Quit India Movement’.
Bazi believed in secularism and had great respect for all religions. He was a vegetarian all through his life and always wore khadi – spinning threads from cotton using a charkha himself. His presence at festivals and programmes here inspired many.