Reshma / Aligarh

Last week has been very gloomy for the Aligarh Muslim University as the news about the passing away of at least 12 of its faculty mostly due to Covid-19 infection kept pouring in almost daily.

The AMU alumni is a very close-knit community; all the present and former students and teachers who have gone places proudly speak of their university.

The sprawling campus of the AMU in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, received news about the death of 12 teachers – including some former ones too – this week. Hardly a day passed when the tragic news of someone from the community passing away due to the Covid-19 infection didn’t come.

On April 26 three teachers of University passed away. Four days ago, on April 22, three teachers died in a single day.

On April 26, AMU's Center for Women's Studies Assistant Professor Dr Aziz Faisal passed away. Dr Faisal was a member of several academic bodies including Aligarh Historian Society, Indian History Congress and All India Women's Association.

Prof Nabi Ahmed, AMU's eminent teacher and former chairman of the education department, passed away.  Prof Ahmed served AMU in many positions and retired as the chairperson of the Department of Education and the Coordinator of the Disability Unit.

The chairman of AMU's museum department and the former member of Academic Council (AC), Dr. Mohammad Irfan also passed away.

Professor Tariq Mansoor, Vice-Chancellor of the AMU, said Dr Irfan was a hardworking teacher and loved sharing knowledge with his students. His death is a major loss for AMU and a personal loss for him, he said.

Saeeduzamma, who was in charge of the Leather and Footwear Technology Section at AMU's Boys Polytechnic, passed away in his home town of Meerut on Monday after a brief illness.

Jamshed Siddiqui, Senior Teacher and OSD Development Professor in AMU Computer Science Department also died at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College due to Corona. He was 53 years old.

Another AMU court member, member of the Executive Council, a student of AMU and former Rajya Sabha member Wasim Ahmed died of a heart attack.

Eminent critic and senior faculty member in AMU's Urdu Department, Professor Maula Baksh Ansari also passed away. He was 59 years old.

Dr Ehsanullah Fahd, Professor of Sunni theology at AMU's Women's College also died of Covid infection.

Among the former faculty, Professor Saeeduzfar, who retired from the University's psychology Department passed away. So did the former Principal Professor of Boys Polytechnic S.K. Iqbal Ali. He died in Kanpur.

Prof Humayun Murad, Zoology,  Prof Mohammad Zubair Ahmed Khan, Mathematics, Prof Rizwan Hussain, English, also passed away in Lucknow was among the former faculty who bid farewell to the world last week.

Eminent Islamic scholar, writer and a well-known poet living in America and AMU alumnus Dr Abidullah Ghazi too passed away in this period, Maulana Muhammad Wali Rahmani, a former AMU court member and general secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board also passed away.