Dhaka, Sept. 25 -- While the midday sun exuded its heat overhead, hundreds of people have gathered to bid a final farewell to poet and children's author Akhtar Hussain as he left for eternity.

Akhtar's body was brought to the Central Shaheed Minar at 10am on Friday.

The Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Bangladesh Trade Union Centre, Liberation War Museum, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigosthi, Central Khelaghar, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Satyen Sen Shilpigosthi and Jatiya Shikkha Sangskriti Andolon paid tribute to him with flowers.

Recalling his father at the memorial, his younger son Promit Hussain said: "My father was a humane person. One night, my father came home without a shirt. We asked him 'Father, why are you shirtless?' He said 'I saw ...