DHAKA: Eminent singer Bashir Ahmed passed away at his Mohammadpur residence in the city on Saturday night.

He was 75. He had been suffering from cancer.  

He breathed his last around 9:45pm at his residence of Babar road in capital’s Mohammadpur.

Bashir Ahmed left behind wife Mina Bashir, son Raza Bashir and daughter Humaira Bashir and numerous admirers to mourn his death.

He will be buried at Mohammadpur central graveyard after Namaz-e-Janaza on Sunday morning.

Bashir Ahmed was born in Calcutta (Kolkata now) in 1940. He was crazy about music, and was accepted as a pupil by Ustad Vilayat Hussain at the age of 15.

Later, he came to Bombay, and became a student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He got lots of encouragement from him.

In 1960, Bashir Ahmed migrated to Dhaka.

Bashir was also a poet and a lyricist, with a pseudonym B.A Deep. Film-maker, Mustafiz, they contacted Bashir and asked him to write a song for his film, Saagar, which he did, titled Ja dekha pyar tera, and sang it too.

Similarly in Robin Ghosh`s another lilting offering, Karwan, in 1964, Bashir wrote and sang a memorable hit, Jab tum akele ho gay hum yaad aaein gay.

BDST: 0846 HRS, APR 20, 2014