Published : 22 Nov 2018, 02:34 AM
Updated : 05 Aug 2022, 06:47 PM
A former leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling Awami Leagues student front, he is contesting in the upcoming election as an independent candidate.
He took the decision on joining the race because “my area is subjected to development inequality and the previous public representatives failed to do their duties properly”, the activist wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
He also alleged poverty was increasing in Kurigram-4, which consists of Roumari, Rajibpur and Chilmari, as no new jobs have been generated there.
Imran said he would go to his district on Thursday to start election activities.
Born on Oct 14, 1983, Imran became a household name after the Ganajagaran Mancha movement started in February, 2013 to demand capital punishment for war criminals.
Imran received his MBBS degree from Rangpur Medical College. He had been involved with the BCL there.
He was also involved with an organisation, Youth for Peace and Democracy (YPD), which aims to raise political awareness and instil secular spirit among students.
The YPD formed Prajanma Blog to achieve the goal. Imran, however, has not written so many blogs.
The organisers of Ganajagaran Mancha made him the spokesperson when he joined the movement as the convenor of the Blogger and Online Activist Network.
The Awami League and its affiliates backed the movement in the beginning but later started staying away from it when the Shahbagh-based activists began to speak out on other issues like rapes and extra-judicial killings.
Imran had been charged with slandering Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during protests. The High Court later dismissed the case, according to him.
He was detained by the Rapid Action Battalion for hours from a protest programme against extra-legal killings at Shahbagh on June 6.
In July, the Mancha spokesperson alleged he was barred from boarding a plane to the United States to attend events of the State Department and Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Later, he moved the High Court and flew to the US after securing court orders in his favour.
Meanwhile, speculations about him joining politics were rife after he married Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid’s daughter by the end of 2016. The marriage, however, hit the rock before another year passed and the couple separated.
Like many other northern districts, the parliamentary constituency for which Imran wishes to contest had been known as a stronghold of HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party. Its candidates won the elections in 1991, 1996 and 2001.
In 2008, the Awami League’s Zakir Hossain defeated the Jatiya Party candidate in the constituency.
Ruhul Amin MP, the candidate of the Jatiya Party-JP, led by Anwar Hossain Manju, won the last election in 2014.
