THIMMIRI RAVEENDRA at 18:38, 16 January 2026

2026-01-16T18:38:21Z

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{{short description|Bangladeshi politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = AKM Mozammel Haque
| native_name = {{no bold|আ ক ম মোজাম্মেল হক}}
| image = Minister AKM Mozammel Haque Speaking at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy for Documentary Premiere 2022-09-21 (PID-0020981) (cropped).jpg
| caption = Haque in 2022
| office = [[Ministry of Liberation War Affairs (Bangladesh)|Minister for Liberation War Affairs]]
| term_start = 5 January 2014
| term_end = 6 August 2024
| predecessor = [[Shajahan Khan]]
| successor = [[Faruk-e-Azam]] (as adviser)
| office1 = [[Ministry of Religious Affairs (Bangladesh)|Minister of Religious Affairs]]
| term_start1 = 11 December 2018
| term_end1 = 6 January 2019
| successor1 = [[Motiur Rahman (politician, born 1942)|Motiur Rahman]]
| constituency_MP2 = [[Gazipur-1]]
| parliament2 = Bangladesh
| term_start2 = 25 January 2009
| term_end2 = 6 August 2024
| predecessor2 = [[Md. Rahamat Ali]]
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|10|01|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Gazipur District]], [[Bengal Presidency]], British India
| party = [[Bangladesh Awami League]]
}}
'''AKM Mozammel Haque''' ({{langx|bn|আ ক ম মোজাম্মেল হক}}; born 1 October 1946) is a [[Awami League|Awami]] politician. He was the [[Ministry of Liberation War Affairs (Bangladesh)|Minister for Liberation War Affairs]] from 2014 to 2024<ref>{{cite news |title=Anisul: Qamrul, Mozammel need not to resign |url=http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/09/07/anisul-ministers-need-not-resign-posts/ |work=Dhaka Tribune |accessdate=13 September 2016 |date=7 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/120113/Mozammel-demands-Zia%25E2%2580%2599s-DNA-test |title=Mozammel demands Zia's DNA test |work=Prothom Alo |access-date=13 September 2016 |archive-date=10 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910233523/http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/120113/Mozammel-demands-Zia%E2%80%99s-DNA-test |url-status=dead}}</ref> and is also a former [[Jatiya Sangsad]] member representing the [[Gazipur-1]] constituency.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/09/11/lack-management-mounts-sufferings-holidaymakers/ |title=Lack of management mounts sufferings for holidaymakers |work=Dhaka Tribune |date=11 September 2016 |language=en-US |access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/city/shishu-park-be-removed-shahbagh-1283179 |title=Shishu Park to be removed from Shahbagh |work=The Daily Star |date=8 September 2016 |access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Haque was born on 1 October 1946 in Dakhina Khan, [[Gazipur Sadar Upazila]], [[Gazipur District]] to Anwar Ali and Rabeya Khatun.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://molwa.gov.bd/site/office_head/268c2bd7-dd1b-400f-bf1b-d84fa23a487f/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A4 |title=Honorable Minister |website=molwa.gov.bd |access-date=25 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240802012603/https://molwa.gov.bd/site/office_head/268c2bd7-dd1b-400f-bf1b-d84fa23a487f/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A4 |archive-date=2 August 2024}}</ref>

== Career ==
Haque was a member of the [[East Pakistan Chhatra League]] Central Working Committee. According to Awami sources, he fought in the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] in 1971 and was part of the [[Mukti Bahini]]. But this claim only came to life after 1996. This story of him being a freedom fighter was made by AL to give him the Freedom Fighter certificate. From 1973 to 1986, he was elected Upazila chairman three times and four times municipal mayor.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

He was elected to the parliament from [[Gazipur-1]] in 2008. He was elected unopposed from the same constituency in the 2014 elections which the opposition boycotted citing unfair conditions for the election.<ref>{{cite news |date=2 December 2013 |title=Bangladesh opposition to boycott elections |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/12/bangladesh-opposition-boycott-elections-2013122900876856.html |access-date=9 March 2022 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref> He acted as the [[Minister of Religious Affairs (Bangladesh)|religious minister of Bangladesh]] from 2018 to 2019. In 2019, he was appointed the [[Ministry of Liberation War Affairs (Bangladesh)|Minister for Liberation War Affairs]].<ref name=":0" />

== Controversy ==
In 1974, Mozammel was implicated in the abduction and gang rape of a newlywed housewife, whose driver and husband were killed. Her body was found three days later near a bridge in [[Tongi]]. Although arrested by [[Bengal Lancers|Lance]] Major Nasser and handed over to the police, Mozammel was released, reportedly due to [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]]'s intervention. According to [[Anthony Mascarenhas]], this shook the confidence in the Bangladesh army and led Major Faruq to plan for removing Mujib from power, which finally happened as [[Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman|Mujib's assassination]].<ref name="Balb">{{cite book |last1=Mascarenhas |first1=Anthony |title=Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood |date=1986 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |isbn=978-0-340-39420-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoZ0QgAACAAJ&q=legacy+of+blood |pages=48–55 |quote=One day during a combing operation in Tongi area north of Dhaka Major Nasser who was commanding another squadron of the Bengal Lancers, arrested three small-time thugs. In the course of the interrogation one of the men broke down and told the army officers a story about a particularly gruesome triple murder which had rocked Tongi the previous winter. It transpired that a newly married couple travelling to their home in a taxi had been waylaid on the outskirts of town. The bridegroom and the taxi driver were hacked to death and their bodies thrown in the river. The bride, who was carried off to an isolated cottage, was repeatedly raped by her abductors. Three days later her mutilated body was found on the road near a bridge.Confessing to his part in the crime, the thug told the army men the police investigation was called off when they found out that the ring-leader of the gang was his boss, Muzamil, chairman of the Tongi Awami League. According to Farook, the confession so infuriated the interrogating officer, a boyish lieutenant named Ishtiaque who had since resigned and left the country, that "he started kicking the chap so hard that he died of internal injuries". Muzamil himself was taken by Major Nasser to Dhaka for prosecution after he confirmed from police records that the thug had been telling the truth. According to Farook, Muzamil offered Nasser 300,000 Takkas for his release. "Don't make it a public affair", the Awami Leaguer advised him. "You will anyway have to let me go, either today or tomorrow. So why not take the money and forget about it?" Nasser, who was affronted by this blatant attempt to bribe him, swore he would bring Muzamil to trial and make him hang for his crime. He handed him over to the civil authorities. Farook said they were all astonished a few days later to find that Muzamil had been released on Shiekh Mujib's intervention. "I told you to take the money", Muzamil crowed. "You would have been the gainers. Now I have been released anyway and you get nothing."The incident shattered Farook and his colleagues. Tongi marked the turning point for them. "It seemed as if we were living in a society headed by a criminal organization. It was as if the Mafia had taken over Bangladesh. We were totally disillusioned. Here was the head of government abetting murder and other extreme things from which he was supposed to protect us. This was not acceptable. We decided he must go". "...when hope is extinguished, accountability denied and the people have nothing further to lose, they turn to violence to redress their wrongs". |access-date=10 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Anthony Mascarenhas]] briefly mentioned Mozammel's involvement in this crime in his 1986 book ''[[Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood]]''.<ref name="Balb"/><ref name=Ob>{{cite book |last1=Obaidullah |first1=A. T. M. |title=Institutionalization of the Parliament in Bangladesh: A Study of Donor Intervention for Reorganization and Development |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-981-10-5317-7 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtNjDwAAQBAJ&q=Muzammil+tongi&pg=PA32 |access-date=10 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

The incident has been also depicted in novel ''[[Deyal]]'' by [[Humayun Ahmed]].<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:হুমায়ূন আহমেদের বর্ণনায় আ. লীগ নেতা মোজাম্মেলের ধর্ষণ-হত্যার চিত্র |url=https://www.dailyjanakantha.com/international/news/770942 |access-date=10 February 2025 |work=[[Janakantha]] |date=8 February 2025 |language=bn}}</ref>

==Role in the Liberation War==
According to Awami League in 1996, during the [[liberation war of Bangladesh]], he fought as a freedom fighter from [[Gazipur]] and an organizer of the liberation war in the city. On 19 March 1971, in the first battle in Gazipur, he led the frontline against Brig. Jahan Zeb under the orders of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the convener of the Armed Resistance Committee.<ref name=":0" />

Many, including [[Hasan Uddin Sarkar]], claim that the information about his participation in the Liberation War is a fake information made in 1996. After the Awami League came to power in 1996, when the Muktijoddha Gazette was published and AKM Mozammel Haque's name was included in it, there was discussion and criticism in the National Parliament. In 2023, a writ petition was filed in the High Court by JAMUKA member and Secretary General of the National Muktijoddha Foundation, Kh. M. Amir Ali, whose case number is 15142, a total of seven people, including the then Cabinet Secretary, Secretary of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, and JAMUKA Chairman AKM Mozammel Haque, were made accused in the writ case. After analyzing the application form of the case in the court and searching for information from various sources, it was found that AKM Mozammel Haque's name is not in the list of 51,000 freedom fighters trained in India. There are allegations that his name was included by rubbing out the volume of the Red Muktibarta made in 1986 kept in the National Museum.<ref name=m/> As evidence, many claim that Hasan Uddin Sarkar, Habibullah, Nazrul Islam Khan, Soumendra Goswami, Shahidul Islam Pathan, Motalib, Shahidullah Bachchu, Md. Rafiqul Islam, Sheikh Abul Hossain, Abdus Sattar and thousands of people led the armed resistance war against the Pakistani forces in Joydevpur, Gazipur on March 19, 1971, but Mozammel Haque was also among the thousands of people, but A.K.M. Mozammel Haque distorted history and took full credit, also before 1971, Mozammel Haque passed BA and MA in 1994, but he tampered with the documents of the Liberation War and wrote MA LLB in his educational qualification, which is impossible.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:মোজাম্মেল ও তার সনদ নিয়ে যা বললেন মুক্তিযোদ্ধারা |url=https://www.jugantor.com/national/920515 |work=Jugantor |language=bn}}</ref>

== Corruption charges ==
Post [[July Revolution (Bangladesh)|Student-People's Uprising]], the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against Haque for allegedly acquiring illegal assets worth Tk10.34 crore.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-04-29 |title=Tk10.34cr illegal assets: ACC sues ex-minister AKM Mozammel Haque |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/corruption/tk1034cr-illegal-assets-acc-sues-ex-minister-akm-mozammel-haque-1129166 |access-date=2025-05-03 |work=The Business Standard}}</ref>

===Error in the preparation of the list of Rajakars===
On December 15, 2019, A.K.M. Mozammel Haque, as the then Minister of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, held a press conference and released a list of 10,789 'anti-independence' [[Razakar (Pakistan)|Rajakars]]. But the names of gazetted [[Bangladesh liberation war|Freedom fighters]] and members of the families of martyrs in the list created anger and criticism. Later, the list was suspended for correction.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:রাজাকারের তালিকা: ক্ষোভ আর প্রতিবাদের মুখে বিতর্কিত তালিকা শেষ পর্যন্ত স্থগিত করলো সরকার |work=BBC News |language=bn |url=https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-50834746}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:দৈনিক আমাদের সময় |url=http://www.dainikamadershomoy.com/post/232359 |work=Amader Shomoy |language=bn}}</ref><ref>[https://www.banglatribune.com/604294/%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A7%9F%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%96%E0%A7%87 main] [https://web.archive.org/web/20210524180738/https://www.banglatribune.com/604294/%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A7%9F%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%96%E0%A7%87 archive]</ref>

===Freedom fighter identity and certificate forgery===
He was one of the main people involved in making 25,000, or possibly 50,000 fake freedom fighter certificates in Bangladesh during the 16-year Awami League government until 5 August 2024.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:টাকার জন্য সবই করতেন আ ক ম মোজাম্মেল |url=https://www.dainikamadershomoy.com/details/01939d28d7849 |work=Amader Shomoy |language=bn}}</ref>

In the investigation report after August 5, 2024, [[Faruk-e-Azam]] said that Mozammel Haque used to charge 5 lakh taka for each fake certificate of freedom fighter.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:মুক্তিযোদ্ধা সনদে ঘুসের থাবা মোজাম্মেলের |url=https://www.jugantor.com/tp-lastpage/892069 |work=Jugantor |language=bn}}</ref> A report in Jugantor said that Mozammel received bribes worth around 100 million taka in total, ranging from 3 lakh taka to 2 crore taka for each fake certificate.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=bn:যুগান্তরে প্রকাশিত খবরে তোলপাড় গাজীপুর |url=https://www.jugantor.com/country-news/921017 |work=Jugantor |language=bn}}</ref>

On April 13, 2025, at the 95th meeting of the [[National Freedom Fighter Council]] or JAMUKA, chaired by [[Faruk-e-Azam]], Chairman and Advisor on Liberation War Affairs, it was stated that there is controversy over AKM Mozammel Haque's participation in the Liberation War and if the allegations are proven, his freedom fighter certificate and gazette will be cancelled.<ref name=m>{{cite news |script-title=bn:সাবেক মুক্তিযুদ্ধবিষয়ক মন্ত্রীরই মুক্তিযোদ্ধা সনদ ‘ভুয়া’, তালিকায় আরো যারা |url=https://www.kalerkantho.com/online/national/2025/04/30/1511203 |work=Kaler Kantho |date=30 April 2025 |language=bn}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haque, Mozammel}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Awami League politicians]]
[[Category:10th Jatiya Sangsad members]]
[[Category:11th Jatiya Sangsad members]]
[[Category:Ministers of liberation war affairs of Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Mukti Bahini personnel]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Independence Award]]
[[Category:12th Jatiya Sangsad members]]
[[Category:9th Jatiya Sangsad members]]

AKM Mozammel Haque politician - Revision history

THIMMIRI RAVEENDRA at 18:38, 16 January 2026