Bangladesh, July 6 -- Bangla Academy President and eminent writer Professor Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq passed away on Sunday afternoon at the age of 86.

He breathed his last at around 2:30pm at the National Heart Foundation in Mirpur after falling ill during a family programme, according to Serajul Islam (Seraj Salekeen), Chairman of the Department of Bangla at the University of Dhaka.

Professor Huq was one of Bangladesh's leading literary critics and scholars. He taught at the Department of Bangla at the University of Dhaka for four decades, making significant contributions to literary research, criticism and higher education.

He graduated from the University of Dhaka in 1965 and completed his master's degree there in 1966. At the time o...