Tajuddin Ahmad
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Tajuddin Ahmad (1925 - November 3, 1975) was a Bangladeshi politician who was one of the most prominent leaders of the Awami League and headed the government at Mujibnagar during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
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[edit] Early life
Tajuddin Ahmed was born in 1925 in the village of Dardaria in the Gazipur District of the province of Bengal (now in Bangladesh). He passed his matriculation in 1942 and obtained a bachelor of arts degree from Dhaka University in 1953. He would also later obtain a law degree. As a student activist, Ahmed became active in the Muslim League and the Pakistan movement. He would later organise the student wing of the Awami Muslim League in 1949, joining Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
[edit] Political career
Tajuddin Ahmed was an active organiser of protests and other activities during the Language Movement of 1952. He was arrested by police and imprisoned for several months. After his release, he was elected to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in 1954 but was arrested following the dismissal of the A. K. Fazlul Huq-led government. He would be arrested again following the imposition of martial law by Ayub Khan in 1958 after taking power in a military coup. Ahmed worked actively in the pro-democracy campaign led by the Awami League and other political parties in Pakistan. He organised protests against the arrest of Mujib in 1966 on charges of sedition. He participated at the round table conference in Rawalpindi convened by Ayub Khan to resolve the crisis between the government and the opposition parties. Following the restoration of democracy, he was elected member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1970.
Following the arrest of Mujib on March 25, 1971 by the Pakistan Army, Tajuddin Ahmed led other Awami League leaders to Mujibnagar, where he proclaimed the independence of Bangladesh and organised a government-in-exile. He assumed the title of Prime Minister of Bangladesh and led efforts to organise a guerrilla insurgency and win international support. During this period, Ahmed was involved in a bitter intra-party dispute with Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. After the independence of Bangladesh, Tajuddin Ahmed returned to Dhaka on 22 December 1971. In the subsequent cabinet formed under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ahmed was given charge of the ministries of finance and planning. He was also appointed member of the committee in charge of writing the Constitution of Bangladesh.
[edit] Assassination
When Mujib assumed the title of president and banned other political parties in 1975, Ahmed helped him organise BAKSAL and a militia of political supporters. When Mujib was assassinated in by a group of army officers on 15 August 1975 Ahmed and other Mujib loyalists fled the capital. Emerging later, they were arrested by the regime of the new president Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and imprisoned at the Dhaka Central Jail. On November 3, in what became infamously known as the "Jail killings," Ahmed along with Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman and Muhammad Mansur Ali were killed by a group of police and army officers, even as the regime of Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was overthrown in a coup by Mujib loyalist Khaled Mosharraf.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by: none |
Prime Minister of Bangladesh 11 April 1971 – 13 January 1972 |
Succeeded by: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |
