Professor Panna Kaiser, wife of martyred intellectual Shahidullah Kaiser and former Member of Parliament, died at a hospital in the capital on Friday morning.

She breathed her last at United Hospital around 8:00am while undergoing treatment, according to her daughter Shomi Kaiser.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has condoled her death.

Respectfully revered as the “Shaheedjaya” (widow of a martyr), Panna Kaiser was born in May 25, 1950 at the Barura Upazila of Cumilla in the then-Pakistan.

She completed her Master's in Bengali Literature from Dhaka University in 1969. Later, she taught Bengali Literature at the Badrunnessa College in Dhaka.

Panna Kaiser became a presidium member of the country's largest children's organisation "Khelaghar". She had been the chairperson of the presidium of the organization since 1992.

She got married to Shahidullah Kaiser, a writer and a journalist on February 17, 1969, who was abducted from his home on December 14, 1971 by the paramilitary Al-Badr and has been missing since then.

For her exclusive research works and write-ups, Bangla Academy conferred her with the prestigious Bangla Academy Literary Award in 2021.