A.R. SHAMSUD Doha, a former foreign minister of Bangladesh, died on March 3 in Lebanon. He was 83.

Mr Doha had been living in Lebanon for the past few years and was laid to rest there, according to son Shahid Doha.

Shamsud Doha was born in Murshidabad (West Bengal, India) in 1929, attended the St Xavier’s and St Paul’s schools before graduating from Kolkata University in 1948.

He was a good athlete and was being tipped to represent India at the 1948 London Olympics but for partition.

During the 1950s he joined the Pakistan Army after graduating from the Military Academy. He retired from the Army in 1968.

In the general election of 1970, he contested a seat from Rawalpindi on an Awami League ticket. At the time, he founded a weekly newspaper, Inter Wing. The paper brought trouble for its founder because of its anti-government character, landing Mr Doha in jail three times.

After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, Mr Doha served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Yugoslavia, Iran and the United Kingdom.

He was later appointed information minister and eventually foreign minister in 1982.

He played a leading role in organising the Islamic foreign ministers conference in Dhaka in 1983.

After leaving office, Mr Doha founded and ran Dialogue Publications, a Dhaka-based weekly newspaper and media house.

He was the eldest son of A.H.M. Shamsud Doha, a former inspector-general of police and also Pakistan’s agriculture minister during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Doha is survived by two sons, Shahid Doha and Naseer Doha.