Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad

Political career

Ahmad was elected a member of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in 1954 as a candidate of the United Front. After the central government of Pakistan dissolved the United Front, Mostaq Ahmad was jailed in 1954 with other Bengali leaders. He was released in 1955 and elected chief whip of the United Front parliamentary party. But with the promulgation of martial law in the country in 1958 he was arrested by the regime of Ayub Khan. During the 6 Point Movement, Ahmad was once again jailed in 1966. Following his release, Ahmad accompanied Sheikh Mujib (then the topmost leader of the Awami League) to the all-parties conference called by Ayub Khan in Rawalpindi in 1969. He was elected a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1970.

Government of Bangladesh in exile

At the onset of the Bangladesh War of Independence and Mujib's arrest, Ahmad and other Awami League leaders gathered in Meherpur to form the Government of Bangladesh in exile. Syed Nazrul Islam served as Acting President (Mujib was declared President), Tajuddin Ahmad served as Prime Minister and Khondokar Mostaq Ahmad was made Foreign Minister. In this capacity, Ahmad was to build international support for the cause of Bangladesh's independence. But his role as the Foreign Minister became controversial as he wanted a peaceful solution, remaining within Pakistan in line with the Six Point Charter of his leader Sheikh Mujib. Zafrullah Chowdhury alleges that Mostaq Ahmad did not act alone in this regard and that Awami League leaders were involved.

President of Bangladesh

Sheikh Mujib and all but two members of his family (his daughters, who were in West Germany at the time and thus escaped the carnage) were assassinated in a gun fight orchestrated by a group of army personnel on 15 August. Mushtaq was removed from office by Brigadier General Khaled Mosharraf and was replaced by Justice Abu Sayem.

Ahmad immediately took control of the government, proclaiming himself as President. Major General Ziaur Rahman was appointed as Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army, replacing K M Shafiullah. He praised the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman calling them shurjo shontan(sons of the sun). Ahmad also ordered the imprisonment of leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman and Muhammad Mansur Ali. He replaced the national slogan of Joy Bangla with Bangladesh Zindabad slogan and changed the name Bangladesh Betar to 'Radio Bangladesh'. More controversially, he proclaimed the Indemnity Ordinance, which granted immunity from prosecution to the assassins of Mujib. Mujib's daughters Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Sheikh Rehana were barred from returning to Bangladesh from abroad. BAKSAL and pro-Mujib political groups were dissolved.

On 3 November, in what became infamously known as the "Jail Killing Day", the four imprisoned leaders Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman, and Muhammad Mansur Ali, they had refused to co-operate with Mostaq, were killed inside Dhaka Central Jail by a group of army officers on the instruction of President Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. However, Ahmad was ousted from power on 6 November in a coup led by Khaled Mosharraf and Shafat Jamil.

Later life and legacy

Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was imprisoned by Brigadier General Khaled Mosharraf and later by the Ziaur Rahman administration until 1978. Upon his release, he formed Democratic League and attempted to resuscitate his political career, but to no avail. He spent his last years in Dhaka and died on 5 March 1996.

Ahmad was named in the investigation of the murder of Sheikh Mujib launched in 1996 by his daughter Sheikh Hasina, who had just won the national elections to become Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Hasina blamed Mostaq for her father's death. Due to his death, he was not charged or tried. Historians and critics assert that Ahmad was one of the key plotters of Mujib's murder. He is also criticized for legitimizing political murders by protecting Mujib's killers.

He is also known to be responsible for the killing of the four national leaders, among whom were the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Tajuddin Ahmed and Captain Muhammad Mansur Ali, and former interior minister A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman on 3 November 1975 inside the Dhaka Central Jail, commemorated as Jail Killing Day by the Awami League today.