Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury

Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, (born July 26, 1983) is a fugitive Bangladesh Awami League politician. He is a former minister of education and a former member the Jatiya Sangsad, from the constituency of Chittagong-9. Mohibul is regarded as one of the main perpetrators of the July massacre. He is wanted by the government of Bangladesh for crimes against humanity during the Student–People's uprising of 2024. He has reportedly fled from Bangladesh to India after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's regime on 5 August 2024. He is the eldest son of the late mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.

Early life and education

Chowdhury Nowfel was born on 26 July 1983 into the family of former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and Shaheda Mohiuddin.

He completed his schooling in Bangladesh before pursuing higher education abroad. Nowfel earned a joint bachelor's degree in law and anthropology from London School of Economics (LSE) and Bar Vocational Course from the University of Law. Despite repeated claims no record exists of him becoming a barrister.

He was a member of Awami League's Chittagong City executive committee from 2012 to 2016 and was later promoted as an organising secretary.

Career

Chowdhury was elected to the Jatiya Sangsad on 30 December 2018 in 2018 general election from Chittagong-9 as a Bangladesh Awami League candidate. He was appointed as the deputy minister of education in the 4th cabinet of Sheikh Hasina.

From 2016 to 2019, Chowdhury held the position of Organising Secretary of the Awami League's Central Committee. During his tenure in the secretarial body, he helped win the Narayanganj City Corporation election in 2016 which was the first city election with direct political party nomination in Bangladesh. He was one of the youngest organising secretaries of Awami League and was credited for managing the party in important districts such as Gazipur, Faridpur, Kishoreganj, Shariatpur, Gopalganj, etc. which districts are considered Awami League heartlands. On 25 June 2018, he apologized to Bangladesh Election Commission for violating electoral code of conduct.

Chowdhury was a partner of The Legal Circle, and an advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh before his ministerial appointment. On 27 December 2019, he was removed from central executive committee of Awami League as part of the party's strategy to separate the government from the party.

Policy initiatives

From 2022 Education Ministry of Bangladesh is introducing a new curriculum at the secondary level to make mandatory provisions for technical and vocational education. Under the guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Education Minister Dipu Moni and Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury is leading the transformation effort in light of the 2018 Awami League Election Manifesto. Bangladeshi Deputy Education Minister shared the government reformation plan with Anadolu Agency on 13 October 2021.
To implement this plan new curriculum is being brought to transform the education sector into competency, skill and outcome-based education. The government plan includes producing skilled manpower, focusing on specialized universities and the importance of moral values in schooling. Mr Chowdhury said the existing education system in Bangladesh mostly fails to assess the skills and efficiency of students, "at the secondary level, we want to provide a minimum standard education in science, humanities, and business studies so that students can grow in line with a profession-based and Outcome-based education, with a reformed evaluation/assessment process " he continued.

On 9 April 2021, Chowdhury said that the Bangladesh government might reconsider and cancel recognition of the highest degree from the Qwami Madrassa Board if the teaching of extreme religious interpretation is not regulated and basic academic standards are not met.

Ministry of Education in Bangladesh was in the process of rolling out a TVET and STEAM based school curriculum to achieve the newly promoted political and economic objective, " Smart Bangladesh". Regarding the new curriculum, when he was Deputy Minister of Education Mohibul Chowdhury said there is a need to promote reading habits, implement continuous assessment methods and integrate essential soft skills and vocational education skills. Therefore conventional memory-based public exam-based assessments should be discarded and new curricullum should be implemented.

One of the controversy in the proposed new curriculum was inclusion of third gender rights, reproductive health and mandatory science and maths education for all up to the age of 16. Staunchly secularist Mohibul defended inclusion of contents promoting rights of third gender and transgender people in textbooks after facing intense criticism from religious and political groups. After protests about the inclusion of transgender Sharif's story in textbooks, Mohibul emphasised the importance of acknowledging legally recognised third gender community in society and ensuring that students are aware of this aspect of society. He had commented that this is just a rights issue of a gender minority but the conservative elements are trying to politicise the matter.

Conservative religious leaders and pro Islamist academics have joined to remove educational contents seen as un-Islamic and demanded release of university teacher Asif Mahtab who protested inclusion of third gender/transgender contents in textbooks. Religious and right wing political parties along with some academics have demanded revision of the new curriculam as Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country. The new Education Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud of the 2024 interim government of Bangladesh, following ouster of Mohibul as Education Minister and the entire government of Sheikh Hasina, have decided to scrap the new curriculum in favour of the old curriculum of 2012.

Criminal activities

Nowfel was responsible for a forceful takeover of Premier University in Chittagong by abusing his authority in the Education Ministry. An NBR report found out that he embezzled university funds and ran an illegal tobacco business worth crores of takas. The BFIU froze his and his family's bank accounts on August 20, 2024. The Anti-Corruption Commission found evidence of more than Tk 211.20 crore worth of suspicious transactions in various of his bank accounts and amassing significant wealth beyond his known sources of income. On January 20, 2025, a Dhaka court ordered the seizure of his tax files after a petition by the ACC.

It was seen as Mohibul's failure to protect university students when BCL goons attacked the quota protesters of Dhaka University on 15 July 2024. Mohibul was responsible for shutting down schools, colleges, universities and university residential halls during the July–August Student Protests which was seen as an attempt to contain the protests. Violence was done by police to force students to leave the residential halls.

Nowfel has been implicated in a murder case related to the death of a college student, Tanvir Siddiqui, during quota reform protests in Chittagong. The case, filed by the victim's uncle, accuses Nowfel, along with former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 32 others, of orchestrating an attack on peaceful protesters on 18 July 2024. During the protest, unidentified assailants allegedly attacked students with firearms and other weapons, resulting in Tanvir being shot and later dying in the hospital.

This incident is part of a larger pattern of violence associated with the protests, which have led to multiple fatalities.

Some of the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, Jubo League and Awami League from Chattogong claim that Mohibul, whose nickname is Nowfel, is their current political mentor after his father ABM Mohiuddin Chowhdury has passed away. In Chittagong University, two factional groups of Chhatra League activists, who claim to be Mohibul's followers, calling them Chose Friends with Care (CFC) and Bijoy group, routinely attempt to dominate the campus against A J M Nasir Uddin backed VFX group. Mohibul has vehemently distanced himself from such group formations in his name and everything that is done inappropriately using his name.

Political analysts also have pointed out these political rifts between different groups in local politics of Chittagong dates back from the time of Mohibul's father ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu who led two factions and had disagreements with each other and Mohibul is merely blamed for something that was ongoing before he even joined politics. Conflict and competition between AJM Nasir Uddin faction who claimed to have inherited Akhtaruzzaman Babu's faction and A. B. M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury followers has been on going for a long time.

Factional divide in local Awami League that began in 1980s also exist in Chittagong Medical College Hospital amongst groups of Doctors and Medical professionals as well. In October 2021, a medical student claiming to belong to Mohibul supported group was so badly beaten by rival group belonging to AJM Nasir Uddin supported Dr Faisal Iqbal Chowdhoury group during a clash, that his skull cracked open. Intern Doctors, medical students claiming to be his followers and followers of AJM Nasir Uddin clashed multiple times which caused serious injury to multiple members of the Chhatra League. In July 2022 Intern Doctors who claim to be close to Mohibul alleged to have assaulted two nurses of Chittagong Medical College Hospital after they had trivial disagreement with Nurse leaders over care of burn injury patients as the nurses were not responding to doctor's & patients' call for help.

Beside distancing himself from all criminal activities done in his or in his late father's name, Mohibul has frequently warned criminal elements within Chhatra League activists or those who claim to be part of the student organisation, as well as general students, that they will continue to face full academic and legal consequences if they continue their violent and criminal activities and he will never condone or support them.

In February 2023, Avijit Das, a Chhatra League cadre/activist and a medical student along with his fellow students who were alleged to be unverified followers of Mohibul tortured 4 students of Chittagong Medical College to the extent that 2 of them were admitted in ICU. Avijit admitted of 'quizzing' them only but journalists have found them in critical condition with marks all over the body. Mohibul never condoned the act, nor did he take any action despite being the education minister. Following this incident Mohibul has condoned and criticized all criminal acts done using his or his political party's name in either the Chittagong Medical College or in any other institution and called for impartial investigation against all alleged criminals.

In November 2020, during nationwide violent and fatal protests in Bangladesh led by Islamic fundamentalist groups like Hefazat-e-Islam, Islami Andolan and others, opposing the construction of sculptures and demanding demolitions in the wake of the building of a sculpture of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mohibul warned extremist elements that his "Awami League government has the capacity to be inclusive by embracing you (rioters) along the shoulder, but if you cross the limit and continue to cause havoc, my government also has the capacity to twist your necks and eliminate you."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Mohibul Hasan
Living people
1983 births
Politicians from Chittagong
Awami League politicians
11th Jatiya Sangsad members
Deputy ministers of education of Bangladesh
12th Jatiya Sangsad members
Ministers of education of Bangladesh
People indicted for crimes against humanity
Bangladeshi exiles
Fugitive politicians
Exiled Bangladeshi politicians