The Azad

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The Azad (Bangla:আজাদ) is Bangla daily that was first published in Kolkata on October 13, 1936. The first editor of the daily was Maulana Mohammad Akram Khan. In the early days the daily was treated as the expresser of the Muslims of Bengal and Assam. In the 1940s the editor was Mohammad Modabber and he used to carry all the initiatives to publish it with his son. Abul Kalam Shamsuddin and Nazir Ahmed was also associated during that time. The daily regularly published the news of Dhaka as well from their regional reporter Khairul Kabir.

When the partition of India took place the whole paper was transferred to Dhaka on October 19, 1948. Abul Kalam Shamsuddin was nominated editor at that time. Other officials were Khairul Kabir as news editor and Mujibur Rahman Khan and Abu Jafar Shamsuddin was in editorial section. Soon afterwards the daily became the leading in East Bengal.

The publication of Azad was prohibited in 1949 when the editorial went against the government. Government also stopped giving advertisements to the paper. Azad played an important role during the Language Movement. Azad supported the movement and told the truth defying the threat of the government. When the killing of February 21 took place, Azad immediately released a special edition on February 22. Abul Kalam Shamsuddin who was the editor and the member of the Legislative Council of that time resigned from council as a protest of the killing. Though it was a Muslim League based paper, it showy their love and respect for the Bengali language and movement. As a result Azad later become the main source to collect the historical happenings of that time. But their vision also deteriorated from time to time. Specially after March 1, 1952 they followed the mentality of the government and became partisan^[1]. During the autocrat regime of Ayub Khan the daily again stood up to protest against numerous corruptions. It also played an important in yet another important of the history of Bangladesh at Agartala Conspiracy Case.

The daily lost its appeal when Maulana Akram Khan died and the controversies started about the ownership. After the independence of Bangladesh the daily was published with the financial help of the government. Later the daily was given to the private administration and it was finally defunct in 1990.