Ahmed, Mollah Jalaluddin

Ahmed, Mollah Jalaluddin (1926-1979) lawyer and politician. Mollah Jalaluddin Ahmed was born on 1 February 1926 at village Barfa in Gopalganj district. Having obtained his MA (1952) in Political Science and LLB degree (1953) from Dhaka University he joined the Dhaka Bar.

While a student, Mollah Jalaluddin made himself associated with active politics, and was the president of Faridpur town unit of Bangiya Muslim Student League (1941), organising secretary of the district unit of Student League, leader of the Sylhet Referendum, and founder-member of the Awami Muslim League. He was expelled from the Salimullah Muslim Hall for organising movement in support of the strike of the subordinate employees of Dhaka University. He had active role in the language movement of 1952. He was a member of the executive committee of awami league from 1964 to 1972 AD.

For mobilising six-point programme of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Jalaluddin was arrested under Safety Act in 1966 to be released in 1968 AD. He was one of the delegates from Awami League to the Round Table Conference convened by President Ayub Khan at Rawalpindi in 1969. He was elected a member of the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970. In 1971, he visited the middle eastern countries as an envoy of the mujibnagar government to mobilise support in favour of the war of liberation. He was the chief of Bangladesh mission in Beirut. He was elected a member of the Jatiya Sangsad in the by-election in 1973 and also in general election from Gopalganj in 1979. He was the cabinet member of the Awami League government in 1972-1973 in charge of the Ministries of Post, Telegraph and Telephone, and subsequently of Forest, Fishery and Livestock, Land Revenue and Land Reforms. He resigned from the cabinet in 1974 on medical ground. He died in Dhaka in 1979 AD. [Md Siddiqur Rahman]