Nurul Islam (Broadcaster)
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Nurul Islam (25 November 1928 – 7 October 2006) was a broadcaster, producer and presenter, best known for his work with the World Service at the BBC.
[edit] Life
Born in Dhaka, India. Initially trained as a photographer and an actor. Worked for the Department of Films and Publication after partition in 1947 and became the first Bengali newsreader to announce the birth of the new Pakistan .
He travelled to London in 1949 and studied economics and politics at the London School of Economics, and commenced freelance work as a Bengali contributor, actor and broadcaster for BBC radio.
He returned to Pakistan and worked in both radio and television, helping to make government newsreels at key moments in the history of his country. After announcing on radio the independent state of Bangladesh in 1971, he returned to the BBC in England.
He joined the Voice of America in Washington in the late nineteen seventies for two years, after which he returned to the World Service based at Bush House and presented the hugely popular Bengali language children's program, Kakoli.
Following his official retirement in 1988, he continued as a freelance broadcaster and a mentor to his colleagues at the Bengali section of the World Service at the BBC.
He passed away at Surrey, England after a period of illness.
