Khandker Mustaque Ahmad
Khandker Mustaque Ahmad assumed the office of President of the Republic after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He also became the CMLA*. Khandker Mustaque was removed from office on 6 November 1975. During the brief period that he was in office, four political leaders, namely; Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain Mansur Ali and A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman, were brutally murdered inside the Dhaka central jail on 3 November 1975. He promulgated the Indemnity Ordinance, replaced "Jai Bangla" slogan with "Bangladesh Zindabad" and changed the name of "Bangladesh Betar" to "Radio Bangladesh".
Born in 1919 at village Doshpara of Daudkandi in Comilla district, he was the fourth son of Alhaj Hazrat Khandker Kabiruddin Ahmed and Begum Rabeya. He obtained LL. B. degree from DU. He actively participated in the Pakistan Movement and was jailed in 1946. He was also one of the vanguards of the Language Movement and suffered imprisonment in 1952. A founder joint secretary of Awami Muslim League, he was elected to the EBLA in 1954. On the imposition of Governor's Rule, he was imprisoned. Upon promulgation of Martial Law in October 1958, he was again imprisoned. He toured the country extensively to form public opinion in favour of the Six Point programme formulated by AL in 1966. He was detained for three years and was released from prison in 1969. He played a pioneering role in the unseating of Ayub Khan in 1969. Mustaque Ahmad, who was then a vice president of AL, was elected a member of the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970. During the liberation war, he was the Foreign Minister and Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs of the GOB at Mujibnagar. Mustaque was re-elected a member of JS from Daudkandi in 1973. He remained a Minister of the Republic from 1972 till the assassination of Sheikh Mujib. In 1976, he founded the Democratic League. In the same year, he was convicted in two corruption cases and was imprisoned for a term of five years.* Mustaque was released from prison on 26 March 1980. He remained the Chairman of the National Democratic Alliance till his death on 5 March 1996. He was buried at his family graveyard in Daudkandi. Khandker Mustaque has left behind one son and two daughters.
