Abul Kalam Azad made BSS boss

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad has been appointed as the Managing Director and Chief Editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha – the state-run news agency.

The Ministry of Public Administration issued a gazette notification regarding the appointment on Monday.

Azad will hold the post, equivalent to the post of a secretary, for the next three years.

He will replace Azizul Islam Bhuiyan as the Managing Director and Chief Editor of the national news agency.

Azad was the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary between January 2009 and January 2014. Earlier, he served Bangladesh Embassy in Washington as Press Minister.

He was also the Press Secretary to the Awami League President and Opposition Leader Sheikh Hasina in 2002.

Azad, a former member of the Bangladesh Chhatra League’s central committee, was the Dhaka divisional treasurer of the Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad (All Parties Student Resistance Council SCSP) formed during the Mass Uprising of 1969.

He began his career in journalism by joining Bengali national daily Ittefaq in 1973. He was the President and General Secretary of a faction of Federal Journalists’ Union and Dhaka Reporters’ Union respectively.

Azad was also member of Dhaka University Syndicate and Senate, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University Syndicate, Press Institute of Bangladesh and the National Press Council.

Currently he is a member of Bangabandhu Parishad and the President of its Munsiganj district unit.