Sabihuddin Ahmed was a Brigadier General of the

Bangladesh Army The Bangladesh Army () is the land warfare branch, and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to defend the land of Bangladesh from any external attack. Control of personnel and operations is ad ...

. He had previously served in the

Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini The Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini () was a Bangladeshi paramilitary force formed in 1972 by the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government. Initially formed to curb 1972-1975 Bangladesh insurgency, an insurgency and maintain law and order, the force became involve ...

. He was the founding chairman of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, the largest power distribution company in Bangladesh.

Career

After the

Independence of Bangladesh The independence of Bangladesh was Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence, declared from Pakistan on 26 March 1971, which is now celebrated as Independence Day (Bangladesh), Independence Day. The Bangladesh Liberation War started on 26 March ...

, President

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 ...

appointed Ahmed to the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini led by Brigadier General A. N. M. Nuruzzaman. The Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini was a special paramilitary force composed of veterans of

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

. The force was assimilated into the Bangladesh Army after the

assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, re ...

in the

15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état The Coup d'état, military coup in Bangladesh on August 15 of 1975 was launched by mid-ranking army officers in order to Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, assassinate founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose administration post-inde ...

. In 1977, President

Ziaur Rahman Ziaur Rahman (19 January 193630 May 1981) was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the sixth president of Bangladesh from 1977 until Assassination of Ziaur Rahman, his assassination in 1981. One of the leading figures of t ...

asked Ahmed to head the recently established Rural Electrification Board. He agreed on the condition that he would have complete autonomy to operate the organization. He was appointed chairman of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. The

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 1961 and reorganized in 1998 ...

provided US$50 million at the beginning of the program. The

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, Kuwait, and Finland provided US$280 million in additional funding. The Government of Bangladesh provided an additional US$132 million. Ahmed served as the chairman of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board from 2 January 1978 to 25 June 1986 and was replaced by Brigadier General Mohammad Abdul Halim. He met Senator

Larry Lee Pressler Larry Lee Pressler (born March 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician from South Dakota who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1979, and United States Senate from 1979 to 1997, as a Republican Party (United ...

on his tour of Dhaka in 1985. Ahmed received a heart transplant in the United States with the help of United States National Co-Operatives of Rural Electrification, partner agency of the Rural Electrification Board official, James Cudney.

Death

Ahmed died on 30 May 2008 in Maryland, United States. There is a Brigadier General Sabihuddin Ahmed Hall at the Rural Electrification Board headquarters in Dhaka.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Sabihuddin 2008 deaths Bangladesh Army generals Bangladesh Army brigadiers Year of birth missing Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini personnel 20th-century Bangladeshi military personnel