Abdus Samad Azad ( bn, আব্দুস সামাদ আজাদ; 15 January 1922 – 27 April 2005) was a Bangladeshi diplomat and politician. He was elected to Bangladesh's parliament five times from 1970 to 2001. He was also elected Member of Lower Assembly in the Parliament of the then

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

. He became President of the Muslim Student Federation of All - Asam in 1946 and led the Language Movement in 1952.

Early life

Azad was born on 15 January 1922 in the village of Bhurakhali, Jagannathpur, Sunamganj,

Sylhet Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

in the then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He passed matriculation from Government Jubilee High School, Sunamganj in 1943 and graduated from Murari Chand College, Sylhet in 1948. Then he admitted himself in Dhaka University on the subject of Law and History and completed M.A. But his degree was deprived by the then Government because of his involvement in the movement against British.

Career

Azad joined the All Bengal Muslim Students’ Association in the 1940s as the President of Sunamganj unit. He supported the Pakistan movement. In 1952, he was imprisoned for his role in the Bengali language movement. He worked as a school teacher and was known as 'Master Sab’ and then an insurance man. He was elected to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in 1954 as a candidate of the United Front. In 1954, he joined the

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...

. He served as the league's labor secretary. He left the league in 1957 with other leftist politicians led by

Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani (12 December 1880 – 17 November 1976), often shortened as Maulana Bhashani, was a Bengali politician. His political tenure spanned the British colonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh periods. Maulana Bhashani was pop ...

. He returned to Awami League in 1969 and was elected to the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

in 1970. Azad was a leader and an executive member of the

and a friend to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by 1970 when he became the chief representative of the Bangladeshi independence movement in exile, helping the movement get international support while Mujibur Rahman was imprisoned. When independence for Bangladesh was achieved in 1971, Azad became its first foreign minister, within the Mujibur Rahman government. He served in that position until 1973 and then became agriculture minister. He was replaced by Kamal Hossain as the foreign minister. Azad did not support the 1975 military coup in which Mujibur Rahman was killed. He was imprisoned until 1978. In 1996, when the Awami League came back to power under Mujibur Rahman's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, Azad was appointed as the foreign minister again. He served in that position until 2001 when the Awami League lost the election. He was elected to Jatiya Sangsad in 1991, 1996 and 2001.

Death

Azad died at a hospital in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

on 27 April 2005.

References

1922 births 2005 deaths People from Jagannathpur Upazila Awami League politicians Bangladeshi prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Bangladesh Foreign ministers of Bangladesh 5th Jatiya Sangsad members 7th Jatiya Sangsad members 8th Jatiya Sangsad members Recipients of the Independence Day Award Deaths from stomach cancer Deaths from cancer in Bangladesh Burials at Banani Graveyard Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League central committee members {{AwamiLeague-politician-stub