Son says Mohiuddin refused to desert Hasina in exchange for freedom during military-backed govt

Former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury refused an offer of release from jail to see his daughter, who was undergoing treatment for cancer abroad during the military-controlled caretaker government’s regime.

Chittagong city Awami League president Mohiuddin’s son Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel says his father thought his release would harm Sheikh Hasina.

Nowfel, an organising secretary of the ruling party, was speaking at a Victory Day programme in the port city on Saturday, a day after his father's burial.

“My father was one of the hundreds of thousands who follow Sheikh Hasina’s political ideals,” Nowfel said. 

He said the 2007-’08 caretaker government gave his father Mohiuddin a written statement and asked him to sign it if he wanted to be released during the 1/11 episode in 2007. 

“My sister Tumpa was on deathbed abroad at the time,” Nowfel said.

He said his father asked him to take the statement to Syed Ashraful Islam, the then general secretary of the Awami League when Nowefel took it to Mohiuddin in jail.

But Syed Ashraf had refused to pass an opinion on the statement. “He said my father knew when and what decision should be taken in politics,” Nowfel said. 

“When I took the paper to my father again, he asked me whether his daughter would remain alive if he signed it. I said it depends on Allah.

“Then he told me that he could not cause this harm to his sister (Hasina),” he added.

When Mohiuddin reached Bangkok after being released in October the next year, his daughter Fauzia Sultana Tumpa already died.

Remembering the sacrifice his father made for Hasina, Nowfel said, “He never did anything that could harm the party and the leader (Hasina).”

Hasina, now the prime minister, used to address the late Awami League leader 'Mohiuddin Bhai' and always looked for him whenever she attended a programme in Chittagong, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Secretary said.

Mohiuddin’s children call Hasina ‘Fupu’ or auntie.  

Hasina could not help but shed tears after hearing the news of Mohiuddin’s death on Friday morning, Quader said.

A close associate of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mohiuddin was a Chittagong City Chhatra League leader in the 60s. He was president of Chittagong Awami League for about a decade while elected mayor of the city for three terms. His political career expanded for five and a half decades.

At a programme to launch a book on Mohiuddin in February 2015, his wife Hasina Mohiuddin also spoke about the condition for release set by the caretaker government and how he refused it.