Mohammed Fazle Rabbee

Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (occasionally spelled Rabbi, মোহাম্মদ ফজলে রাব্বী; 21 September 1932 – 15 December 1971) was a renowned cardiologist and a published medical researcher.

He was the joint professor of Cardiology and Internal Medicine at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.

He was noted for his progressive thinking and unconventional beliefs for a modern Bengali society.

Rabbee was born on 21 September 1932, in Pabna District, Bengal Presidency, British India.

He was an exceptional student.

In 1948, he passed matriculation from Pabna Zilla School and HSC from Dhaka College in 1950.

The Language Movement in 1952 opened his eyes to the tyranny and repression of the Pakistani government against its Bengali speaking citizens.

The Pakistani government used to suppress and deprive east Pakistan and used to neglect their language, culture, and secular philosophy.

The Bengali were used to be deprived in every sectors regarding promotions, ranks and benefits.

Afterwards, he went to Dhaka Medical College and finished his MBBS in 1955.

He was the youngest medical graduate of his time.

Rabbee was awarded a gold medal for achieving highest marks on the examination in all of Pakistan.

At Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, he became an assistant surgeon on 15 December 1956.

Rabbee and Dr. Jahan Ara Rabbee were married on 8 January 1957.

Jahan had been a student attending Dhaka Medical College at the time.

They raised four children, but the youngest died soon after his birth.

Rabbee became Registrar of Medicine in 1959 at Dhaka Medical College.

In March 1960, he travelled to England to earn higher education, where he earned an MRCP in cardiology and another one in internal medicine.

Rabbee received these two post-graduate degrees in record time by 1962.

In lieu of obtaining his MRCP from London, he worked at the Hammersmith Hospital.

Upon graduation, he worked at Middlesex Hospital with Sir Francis Avery Jones, an eminent British gastroenterologist.

After Rabbee finished his studies, he returned to East Pakistan on 1 January 1963, where he became an associate professor of medicine at the Dhaka Medical College.

He was soon promoted as Professor of Medicine and Cardiology in 1968 and was the youngest MRCP staff member to achieve this promotion in Dhaka Medical College at the age of 36.

According to his daughter Nusrat, Rabbee was a man of science with a progressive philosophy.

In 1969, at the post-graduate Institute of Medicine in Dhaka, he laid out his vision for a classless society.

The speech by Pakistan's topmost professor in medicine evoked strong emotions from the students and colleagues.

The captivating speech inspired everyone to provide good medical care for free to those who couldn't afford it.

The Pakistani government took him in for questioning after the speech.

The army charged that Rabbee was too popular.

In 1970 when the repression of East Pakistanis reached a peak, Rabbee received the Pakistan best professor award which he refused to accept.

He was murdered in the intellectual killing during the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh by Pakistani army and its local collaborators, the Jamaat-affiliated Al-Badr militia.

On 27 March 1971 he became very disturbed when he visited Dhaka medical college (his workplace) with his wife and saw the extent of the massacre committed by Pakistani army on innocent civilians and the faculty of Dhaka university.

Both he and his wife provided medical care, surgery, money, shelter and transportation cost to refugee camps to families of those who were killed, as well as for survivors of torture and rape.

Early in December 1971, Rabbee cautioned poet and activist Sufia Kamal to leave Dhaka, but he himself did not leave and was caught by the Pakistani Army and its collaborators.

According to Kamal, he was one of the intellectuals and other important people who "proved their patriotism to their motherland by sacrificing their lives".

Rabbee was an exceptional clinician, as well as a medical researcher.

Throughout the subcontinent, people sought him out to diagnose difficult cases that could not be diagnosed or treated by local physicians.

Rabbee combined a holistic approach towards health with cutting-edge science.

For his poor patients, this popular doctor, gave free medical treatment, medicine, transportation and hospitalisation costs.

He was extremely well liked by child and elderly patients, because he took the time to interact with them and to understand the root causes of their clinical symptoms.