Ghyasuddin Ahmed

Ghyasuddin Ahmed, (Bengali: গিয়াসউদ্দিন আহমেদ;1935 – 14 December 1971) born in the district of Narsingdi, was a Bengali Educationist.[1]

Education and career

Ghyasuddin Ahmed passed matriculation by obtaining eighth place[2] from St. Gregory High School, Dhaka in 1950 and I.A. from Notre Dame College in 1952 by obtaining tenth place.[1][2] He passed B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in History from Dhaka University in 1957.[1] In his university days, he was a chess champion and captain of the basketball team of S. M. Hall.[2]

Ahmed joined Jagannath College (now Jagannath University) in the History department as a lecturer and later joined Dhaka University in 1958. He went to the UK with Commonwealth Scholarship in 1964 and obtained Honours degree in World History from London School of Economics (LSE).[1] According to his brother, "Ghyas [Ghyasuddin Ahmed] could have done a PhD with the same Commonwealth scholarship but he did not. The reason was that he considered an Honours of LSE would give a much broader base of learning which would be more suitable for teaching in Honours and M.A classes back at home than a PhD which is really a very focal narrow pointed research work. He had foregone his personal achievement and necessity for the cause of his students' teaching. That was the measure of his dedication to his students' welfare. He had to pay for it later on by losing out in the promotion ladder to his juniors who had PhD. But he did not bother about it at all." [2]

Role in liberation war

Ghyasuddin collected medicine and food and delivered those to the posts such as one being Sufia Kamal’s house, from where the freedom fighters picked those up for their training outpost.[3][4]

Death

Accused of helping in the liberation war of Bangladesh he was taken to Dhaka Cantonment in 1971 for questioning. He was released after a few days. Then again on 14 December 1971 he was picked up from Mohsin Hall by the Pakistani paramilitary Al Badar forces. On 4 January 1972 his clothes and mutilated body were identified in Mirpur area.[1]

On 3 November 2013, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, a Muslim leader based in London, and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, based in the US, were sentenced in absentia after the court found that they were involved in the abduction and murders of 18 people - nine Dhaka University teachers including Ghyasuddin Ahmed, six journalists and three physicians – in December 1971.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Profiles of martyred intellectuals". The Daily Star. 14 December 2006. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ahmad, Rashiduddin (14 December 2006). "My brother Ghyasuddin Ahmad". The Daily Star. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Akhtar, Shameem (14 December 2013). "A tribute to our martyred intellectuals". The Daily Star. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Hussain, Akbar (16 December 2004). "'I would rather die than sign any false statement'". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  5. ↑ Chowdhury, Syed Tashfin (3 November 2013). "UK Muslim leader Chowdhury Mueen Uddin sentenced to death in Bangladesh". The Independent. Retrieved 7 November 2013.