Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad (1918-5 March 1996) was the President of Bangladesh from 15 August to 6 November 1975, succeeding Mujibur Rahman and preceding Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem.
Biography[]
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was born in 1918 in Daudkandi Upazila, Bengal Presidency, British India. After graduating from the University of Dhaka, he entered politics and became a member of the Muslim League, but he joined the Awami League and befriended Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In 1970 he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, but he later joined the Bangladeshi government-in-exile after Mujibur Rahman's arrest, but he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Bangladesh under Mujibur Rahman and tried to negotiate a friendly peace with Pakistan. However, his alliances with anti-India and anti-socialist groups led to him distancing himself from Rahman, and on 15 August 1975 he led a military coup against Rahman, using a tank and rogue Bangladeshi troops to surround his house and massacre him and his family. Ahmad had Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, Abul Hasnat Muhammad Qamaruzzaman, and Muhammad Mansur Ali murdered on 3 November in the "jail killing day", but on 6 November Ahmad was overthrown by Khaled Mosharraf and Shafat Jamil. Imprisoned until 1978, Ahmad was released and died in 1996 in Dhaka.