The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Former Home Minister and Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim was admitted to LabAid Hospital yesterday as he is suffering from brain hemorrhage following a stroke in the morning.

He was first taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from Kashimpur jail in the morning, when he complained of feeling weak on his left side.

A team of AL presidium members visited the hospital to see Nasim at around noon.

AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said, " a major hemorrhage took place in the right part of his brain and the left part of his body has been paralysed. The medical board has taken the decision to his physical condition at night."

This issue was also discussed in the AL presidium meeting at the AL Acting President Zillur

Rahman's Gulshan residence yesterday evening.

Meanwhile, Awami League (AL) Presidium member Suranjit Sengupta was also hospitalised at LabAid Hospital for cardiac complications yesterday.

He was receiving treatment under Dr. Barun Chakrabarty.

After primary diagnosis, BSMMU doctors sent Mohammad Nasim to LabAid Specialised Hospital at 12:30pm.

"He is totally conscious. It's curable from the present state," Maj (retd) AK Mahbubul Huq, Head of Medical Services at LabAid, told journalists yesterday afternoon.

Asked if he is out of danger, Dr Huq said he has been kept under observation for 72-hour after which a final assessment could be reached.

The doctor termed the disease 'hemeoperesis'. He, however, declined to make any comment when asked if Mohammad Nasim needs to be sent abroad for medical treatment.

A six-member medical board was constituted for his treatment. Board members are Prof Sirajul Huq, Prof Faizul Islam, Cardiologist Barun Chakroborty and Dr Shahriar Saber of BSMMU and Asst Prof Kanak Kanti Barua and Asst Prof Abu Naser Rijvi of LabAid.

Earlier, DIG (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said Nasim was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the LabAid hospital at about 12:30pm in an unconscious state.

He said Nasim suffered a stroke at about 8:30am at Kashimpur jail and was instantly rushed to BSMMU from where he was admitted to the LabAid hospital.

He is serving a 13-year prison term in a graft case.

Mohammad Nasim was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in a graft case on October 8 last year, while his wife Laila Arzumand Banu, tried in absentia, also jailed for three years for aiding and abetting her husband in acquiring wealth through dishonest means.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against Nasim on March 21 in 2007, a frontline leader of the Awami League, and his wife with Dhanmondi police station for furnishing "false information" in their wealth statements submitted to the ACC.

The trial of another graft case, involving setting up of a T&T digital telephone line, is underway against him.

He was arrested from his Dhanmondi residence by joint forces on February 3 on charges of corruption, amid a clampdown on former ruling politicians under a countrywide purge in the interim period against serious crime and corruption.