OBITUARY: MOHAMMAD BAQIR NAQVI (1928 -2009)
Tapan Kumar Bose
Mohammad Baqir Naqvi, a senior journalist, peace and human rights activist, died at a hospital in Karachi on November 7, 2009, Saturday afternoon. He was 81. He left behind his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Mr. Naqvi or M.B.Naqvi, as he was popularly known to his friends in Pakistan and India was one of the leading human rights and peace activists of South Asia. A relentless critic of the nuclear weapons policy of Pakistan and India, M. B. Naqvi was one of the founders of Pakistan Indian Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Born in Amroha (India) in 1928 he had migrated to Pakistan, where he took up journalism, joining Indus Times (Hyderabad). After some time, he joined Dawn.
He had worked for Radio Pakistan in Rawalpindi for a while. After return from Rawalpindi to Karachi, he again started writing for Dawn and later wrote for The News. He was also a contributor to Herald, a monthly magazine. He also wrote for the Daily Star (Bangladesh), Deccan Herald (India), Gulf News (UAE).
For the past few years he was busy writing a book on the country’s nuclear programme and foreign policy. The work remains unfinished.
M.B. Naqvi was an untiring human rights activist and consistently highlighted injustice against women and other oppressed sections of society.