Kamran Hossain Chowdhury
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Kamran Hossain Chowdhury (; 24 July 1952 – 4 December 2024) was a Bangladeshi politician who was a Member of Parliament from Faridpur. He was a member of the 4th Jatiyo Sangshad. He was a member of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign relations.


Early life

Chowdhury was born in the Faridpur Biswas Estate on 24 July 1952. His father Shamsuddin Chowdhury was the son of a
zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...
and studied at Islamia College in
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
during the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
. Shamsuddin lived in
Baker Hostel Baker Hostel is a government hostel located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The hostel was founded in 1910 during the rule of the British Raj by Edward Norman Baker, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. The hostel is located at 8 Smith Lane i ...
with
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangl ...
. His mother Halima Chowdhury was the daughter of a
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
who worked in different parts of Bengal throughout his career, including in Calcutta in the 1940s and Faridpur in the 1950s. Chowdhury studied at the Residential Model School and
Notre Dame College Notre Dame College (Notre Dame College of Ohio or NDC) was a private Roman Catholic college in South Euclid, Ohio. Established in 1922 by the Sisters of Notre Dame as a women's college, it was coeducational from January 2001 until its closure ...
in
Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...
,
East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...
. While Chowdhury was young, his home in Faridpur was visited by the stalwarts of
Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...
politics, including
A. K. Fazlul Huq Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq (26 October 1873 – 27 April 1962), popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla, was a Bengalis, Bengali lawyer and politician who served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal, prime minister of Bengal during the Britis ...
and
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (8 September 18925 December 1963) was an East Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the Prime Minister of Bengal from 1946 to ...
. His father was a distant nephew of Chowdhury Abdallah Zaheeruddin, who represented Faridpur in the
Bengal Legislative Council The Bengal Legislative Council ( was the legislative council of Bengal Presidency. It was the legislature of the Bengal Presidency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After reforms were adopted in 1937, it served as the upper house of ...
, and
Yusuf Ali Chowdhury Yusuf Ali Chowdhury (1905 – 26 November 1971), commonly known as Mohan Mia, was a leading Muslim League politician from Bengal. He campaigned for Bengali Muslim civil rights in British India. Hailing from a prominent landowning clan of Far ...
, a member of the
Bengal Legislative Assembly The Bengal Legislative Assembly () was the largest legislatures of British India, legislature in British India, serving as the lower chamber of the legislature of Bengal Presidency, Bengal (now Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). It ...
. Chowdhury is also a distant nephew of former minister
Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf (1940 – 9 December 2020) was a Bangladeshi politician who served as government minister. He was a leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Family Kamal was born into a Bengali Zamindar family from Faridpur distric ...
.


Political career

Chowdhury was elected to parliament from the town of Faridpur in 1988. In parliament, he was a member of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign relations. The committee supported the first dispatch of
Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force The Bangladesh Armed Forces and the Bangladesh Police have been actively involved in a number of United Nations Peace Support Operations (UNPSO) since 1988. As of 2024, Bangladesh is the largest contributor in the UN peacekeeping missions. Bang ...
s, as well as deploying Bangladeshi troops to the
Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
. He also served as chairman of the Faridpur District Council. During his tenure, the
River Research Institute The River Research Institute or RRI is an autonomous national research institute based in Faridpur, Bangladesh. It is a statutory organization that carries out research and plans in water resource management. History The institute traces its ...
was established in Faridpur with Dutch government funding. A road from
Goalundo Ghat Goalundo Ghat (also spelled Goalanda and Goalondo; ) is a small town and Municipality#Municipalities as lower-level governance structures, pourasabha in Goalandaghat Upazila, Rajbari District, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. There are two railway ...
to
Jessore Jessore (, ), officially Jashore, is a city of Jessore District in Khulna Division. It lies in southwestern Bangladesh. It is home to the first flight training school of the Bangladeshi Air Force, established in 1971. Jessore city consists of 9 wa ...
via Faridpur was also built in 1990. During the 1988 floods, President H M Ershad flew to Faridpur by helicopter to oversee relief operations coordinated by Chowdhury and the army. Chowdhury was the Vice President of the Japan-Bangladesh Parliamentary Association. The association played a key role in mobilizing aid for the construction of
Jamuna Bridge Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge (), is a bridge built over the river Jamuna in Bangladesh. The bridge was opened in June 1998. With a length of 4.8 kilometres, it is the second longest bridge of Bangladesh, Padma Bridge being the first. It connect ...
. As a member of the fourth parliament, Chowdhury had to vote for the 8th, 9th and 10th
Amendments to the Constitution of Bangladesh Amendments to the Constitution of Bangladesh involve making changes to the country's supreme law. The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1972 and came into effect on 16 Decem ...
. After the fall of Ershad, Chowdhury was a member of the Diplomatic Cell of Jatiya Party in the 1990s, as well as International Affairs Secretary in one faction of the party from 2001 to 2008. Chowdhury and his family were royal guests in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
in 1996.


Personal life and death

Chowdhury was married to the late Shusmita Amin Chowdhury (Dina), a prominent Dhaka socialite, English teacher and Rabindra Sangeet singer. Their eldest son Umran Chowdhury is a lawyer, historian, and columnist. They have a younger son, Ayman. Chowdhury was the nephew of Major General Nazirul Aziz Chishti, who was the Principal Staff Officer of the
Bangladesh Armed Forces The Bangladesh Armed Forces () is the Armed forces, military force of Bangladesh. It consists of three uniformed organizations, they are the Bangladesh Army, the Bangladesh Navy, and the Bangladesh Air Force. The Armed Forces is under the juri ...
. His elder brother Imran Hossain Chowdhury was the first elected chairman of the
Faridpur Sadar Upazila Faridpur Sadar Upazila () is an upazila (sub-district) of Faridpur District in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It contains Faridpur city near the banks of the Padma River. One of 18 registered red-light districts in Bangladesh is located in Faridpur. About ...
. Chowdhury's wife was the eldest daughter of Nurul Amin Khan, who was the Managing Director of the
Jamuna Oil Company Jamuna Oil Company Ltd (JOCL) (estd. as Pakistan National Oil in 1964; renamed as Bangladesh National Oil in 1972) ( DSEbr>JOCL) is a subsidiary of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation that nationally markets octane, petrol, diesel, kerosene, fur ...
. Chowdhury's wife was the niece of Nurul Momen Khan (Mihir), the first Director-General of
National Security Intelligence The National Security Intelligence, commonly known as the NSI, is the principal civilian intelligence agency of Bangladesh. The NSI is the leading body of the Government of Bangladesh in the fields of internal security, counter terrorism, coun ...
; A. R. Khandaker, former
Inspector General of Police An inspector-general of police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most ...
; and Niaz Mahmood Khan (Bobby), an independence activist. Chowdhury died from heart disease on 4 December 2024, at the age of 72.Ex-MP Kamran Hossain Chowdhury passes away
Dhaka Tribune


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Kamran Hossain 1952 births 2024 deaths Jatiya Party politicians 4th Jatiya Sangsad members Chowdhury Bishwas family People from Faridpur District