Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury | |
|---|---|
| সালাউদ্দিন কাদের চৌধুরী | |
 Chowdhury at a 2010 press conference | |
| Minister of Health and Family Welfare | |
| In office 9 July 1986 – 23 January 1988 | |
| President | Hussain Muhammad Ershad |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Mohammed Abdul Matin |
| Succeeded by | Mohammed Abdul Matin |
| Minister of Housing and Public Works | |
| In office 25 May 1986 – 9 July 1986 | |
| President | Hussain Muhammad Ershad |
| Prime Minister | Ataur Rahman Khan |
| Preceded by | Abdul Mannan Siddique |
| Succeeded by | K.M. Aminul Islam |
| Member of Parliament | |
| In office 25 January 2009 – 24 January 2014 | |
| Preceded by | L. K. Siddiqi |
| Succeeded by | Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizvandary |
| Constituency | Chittagong-2 |
| In office 19 March 1996 – 27 October 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Md Yousuf |
| Succeeded by | Moin Uddin Khan Badal |
| Constituency | Chittagong-7 |
| In office 5 March 1991 – 24 November 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu |
| Succeeded by | Golam Akbar Khondakar |
| Constituency | Chittagong-6 |
| In office 7 May 1986 – 3 March 1988 | |
| Preceded by | A. M. Zahiruddin Khan |
| Succeeded by | Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu |
| Constituency | Chittagong-6 |
| In office 18 February 1979 – 7 May 1986 | |
| Preceded by | M. A. Manan |
| Succeeded by | Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury |
| Constituency | Chittagong-7 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-03-13)13 March 1949 |
| Died | 22 November 2015(2015-11-22) (aged 66) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Resting place | Raozan Upazila,Chittagong |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
| Party | Bangladesh Nationalist Party |
| Other political affiliations | |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88m) |
| Spouse | Farhat Quader Chowdhury |
| Relations |
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| Children |
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| Parent |
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| Relatives | Chowdhuries of Chittagong |
| Alma mater | [1] |
| Occupation |
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Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury (Bengali:সালাউদ্দিন কাদের চৌধুরী; (13 March 1949 – 22 November 2015) was aBangladeshi politician and minister, a six-term member of theJatiya Sangsad, and a member of theBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)Standing Committee. He served as a minister in two ministries under theErshad ministry, and later served as the Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs to Prime MinisterKhaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006. He was the son of lateConvention Muslim League leaderA.K.M. Fazlul Quader Chowdhury.[2]
On1 October 2013, he was convicted of 9 of 23 charges and sentenced to death by theInternational Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh for crimes during the 1971Bangladesh War of Independence.[3][4][5] However, limitations placed on his defense testimony were called "disturbing" by some observers.[6][3][4][7] He was executed by hanging inOld Dhaka Central Jail on 22 November 2015.[3]
Chowdhury was born on 13 March 1949 in Gahira village.[8] He was from a political family ofRaozan Upazila in erstwhileEast Pakistan. His father,Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, was a Speaker ofPakistan National Assembly andActing President of Pakistan from time to time before theindependence of Bangladesh.[9] He was the eldest among the six siblings.[10] He received his education from the boarding school,Sadiq Public School atBahawalpur,Pakistan.[9]
Chowdhury was a member of theBangladesh Parliament[11] and of the standing committee ofBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).[12]
Chowdhury was a seven-term Member of Parliament, generally representingRangunia and/orBoalkhali Upazilas, starting with constituencyChittagong-7 in1979. He was elected forChittagong-6 in 1986 and 1991.[13] He was elected for Chittagong-7 again in1996,[13] and re-elected in2001.[14] He ran a failed campaign to be elected secretary general of theOrganisation of Islamic Conference.[15] Opposition member of parliament,Shuranjit Sengupta, demanded the resignation ofM Morshed Khan over the failed bid and in response Chowdhury said,"He should at first be circumcised before commenting on an Islamic organisation like the OIC. If he does that I will support his demand for the foreign minister's resignation,".[16] Chowdhury's final term, to which he was elected in2008, was forChittagong-2.[11]
Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, who was executed for 1971 war crimes, has expressed hope that he can prove his father's "innocence" and expose what he calls a "judicial killing".The family of executed BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury will send a legal notice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, seeking evidence to support their claim that he was subjected to a ‘judicial killing’ by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
Chowdhury was arrested 2011 from his "safe house" inDhanmondi and questioned by the special branch of police,[17] where he was reportedly tortured.[18] The trial for his involvement in the 1971Bangladesh genocide were due to begin in August 2011.[9]
Among the charges submitted against Chowdhury in theInternational Crimes Tribunal were:[19][20]
During Chowdhury's trial the prosecution summoned 41 witnesses to testify while four were called in his defense.[3] Commenting on the trial, the formerUnited States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues,Stephen Rapp, said that it was "disturbing" that limitations were placed on defense testimony.[6] Affidavits stating that Chowdhury was inPakistan and studying law at theUniversity of Punjab at the time of the crimes were not considered.[3][4] Defense testimony from a formerprime minister of Pakistan and a former American ambassador was not allowed by the court.[7]
On 1 October 2013, theInternational Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh sentenced Chowdhury to death by hanging for nine out of the 23 charges brought against him.[4] His partyBNP argued that the trial is politically motivated.[23] On 18 November 2015,Bangladesh Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Chowdhury, upholding the death sentence.[24][25]
On 22 November 2015, at 12:45 in the morning, Chowdhury was executed by hanging atDhaka Central Jail. Another convict,Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, was also executed around the same time.[26][27][28][29] Law MinisterAnisul Huq claimed that Chowdhury and Mojaheed submitted a plea for mercy, which Chowdhury's family denied.[26] Chowdhury was buried at his village home inRaozan Upazila,Chittagong on 22 November 2015.[30]
Chowdhury was married to Farhat Quader Chowdhury.[31] Farhat is the daughter of Alamgir Mohammad Adel (brother ofJahangir Mohammad Adel) and Laili Chowdhury (daughter ofLal Miah, zamindar ofFaridpur). Their children include Farzin, Hummam (b. 1983) and Fazlul.[10][31][32] In August 2016,Human Rights Watch andAmnesty International alleged that Hummam was arrested on 4 August 2016, and disappeared. Amnesty says multiple credible sources place him atRapid Action Battalion (RAB) headquarters inDhaka on 12 August, but authorities have denied having him in custody.[33] Hummam returned home in March 2017. Hummam is married to the granddaughter of industrialistA. K. Khan.
Chowdhury's brother,Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, was a member of parliament fromBangladesh Nationalist Party.[34] Other two brothers were Saifuddin and Jamaluddin.[10] Industrialist brothersSalman F Rahman and Sohel Rahman were their cousins.[10] On 3 January 2005, he metSheikh Hasina and invited her to his son Faiyyaz's wedding.[35] Hasina said that she couldn't attend the wedding due to security concerns after the2004 Dhaka grenade attack. There were accusations that Salahuddin was involved in the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, to which Salahuddin replied that had he been behind the attack, the grenade wouldn't have missed Hasina.
The QC family is one of the wealthiest families inBangladesh. His wealth was estimated to be around Tk. 1,000 crore. He owned a house inDhaka'sDhanmondi area located on Road 10/A. He also owned his family's historic house located on Goods Hill in Rahmatganj (Chittagong) and three other houses in the Gohira village ofRaozan Upazila, where he also owned hundreds of acres of land. Salahuddin and his brothers owned the QC Group based in Chittagong. The QC Group consists of:[36][37]
In 2020, theAnti-Corruption Commission (Bangladesh) traced multiple accounts toSingapore which contained a combined 1 billion USD. The money was laundered there by aBangladeshi citizen. An ACC official told theDaily Sun newspaper that the money belonged to Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury.[38]
https://tob.news/family-claims-salauddin-quader-chowdhury-was-victim-of-judicial-killing/