Hoque, Shamsul

Hoque, Shamsul (1923-1965) politician. He was born on 1 February 1923 at village Maithan (Teuria) in Delduar thana of Tangail district. His father was Dabiruddin Mia and mother Sharifunnesa. Shamsul Hoque passed Matriculation examination in 1938 from Santosh Jahnabi High School, IA in 1940 from Karatia Sadat College, and obtained BA (Hons) degree in 1945 from Dhaka University. In 1945, huseyn shaheed suhrawardy and abul hashim established a regional office in Dhaka in 1945 for extensive propagation in favour of the Muslim League. Shamsul Hoque was assigned to conduct the management of the office. The front ranking young activists of Pakistan Movement arranged a convention of the East Bengal political activists in Dhaka on 6 and 7 September 1947, and therein floated the Ganatantrik Yuba League. Shamsul Hoque was elected as president of the forum. Shamsul Hoque attended the South-East Asian Youth Conference held in Kolkata between 28 February and 6 March 1948 as a representative of Ganatrantik Yuba League. Shamsul Hoque came to the limelight in the bi-election in Tangail held on 26 April 1949. As a nominee of Workers Camp he defeated the Muslim League candidate Khurram Khan Panni (zamindar of Karatia) in the south Tangail constituency consisting of the thanas of Nagarpur, Mirzapur and Basail.

With the floating of Awami Muslim League in 1949 Maulana abdul hamid khan bhasani and Shamsul Hoque were elected as president and general secretary of the Party respectively. Earlier, Shamsul Hoque delivered his written speech in the form of a printed booklet titled Moulabadi in the workers' conference of East Pakistan Muslim League which contained some political proposals. The proposals in the Moulabadi with some modifications were later adopted as the first draft menifesto of the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League.

Shamsul Hoque as a member of the deligation of Chhatra Sangram Parishad met Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Dhaka on the evening of 21 March 1948, launched a protest against the declaration of Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan and placed arguments in favour of Bangla as state language. In a meeting of the Sarbadaliya Rashtrabhasha Karma Parishad held on 20 February 1952 at the office of the Awami Muslim League with Abul Hashim in the chair decision was taken on the issue of the violation of Section 144 during the programme of 21 February. Shamsul Hoque was a member of the Sarbadaliya Rashtrabhasha Karma Parishad. The decision for non-violation of Section 144 was carried at 11-4 votes. The day following, Shamsul Hoque in an assembly of the students at Amtala in Dhaka University campus communicated the decision of the Parishad of non-violation of the Section 144. The students denounced the decision and were adament for violation of the Section 144. Ultimately Shamsul Hoque expressed his solidarity with the rigid decision of the students. Shamsul Hoque was arrested by the government on 19 March 1952 and was kept confined in Dhaka Central Jail. He was released from the jail almost in a state of mental imbalance.

Shamsul Hoque floated a party styled as Khilafat Party with an object of establishing the 'Kingdom of Allah' on earth. He had his last days lone and solitary. Shamsul Hoque was also a writer. He wrote a book titled Baiplabik Drishtite Islam. He died on 11 September 1965. [Khan Mahbub]