London’s Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs has announced plans to name four Council buildings after historic Bengali figures to honour their contribution to the borough.
At a media call on Monday, the mayor spoke about the significance of the building names, which also represent the community's diversity.
The new proposed building names and locations include Tassaduq Ahmed in Mile End, poet Sufia Kamal in Bethnal Green, Shahab Uddin Ahmad Belal in Stepney Green, and Awami League leader Syed Ashraful Islam in Spitalfields and Banglatown.
Tassaduq Ahmed was a political and social activist. He was involved in the 1952 Bangla Language movement and fled East Pakistan to Great Britain after the government attempted to detain him.
He was made an MBE in 1989 and received the Freedom of Tower Hamlets in 2000. Ahmed has also published two newspapers in England, which are- Desher Dak and Eastern News. He passed away in 2001.
Begum Sufia Kamal, a renowned and beloved Bangladeshi poet and political activist took part in the Bengali nationalist movement and was a civil society leader in independent Bangladesh.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War, she actively helped freedom fighters. She was the first woman in Bangladesh to receive a state funeral when she died in 1999.Shahab Uddin Ahmad Belal was a councillor for Tower Hamlets. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was involved in the development of this community.
Before passing away in 2018, Shahab Uddin was also an activist in the anti-racism movement.
Syed Ashraful Islam was a Bangladesh Awami League politician. While living in Tower Hamlets he was involved in Bangladeshi community activism and played an important role in the formation of the Bangladesh Youth League. He passed away in 2019.
Mayor John Biggs later said: "It is fitting that we continue to name these council buildings after pillars in the community of Tower Hamlets. It celebrates our diverse communities whilst also educating our younger generations about who these people were, what they achieved and what this meant for residents across our borough."
Last year, Altab Ali House was unveiled in Wapping. He was a Bangladeshi textile worker and was stabbed to death in a racially motivated killing in 1978.
