The Mohiuddin family controlled the Munshiganj Awami League.
Mohammad Mohiuddin gradually became the control of the Munshiganj District Awami League due to his status as Bangabandhu’s bodyguard. He has been sitting in the chair of the district committee president for 34 years.
Not only him; at least six members of the family have seized the top positions of the Awami League and its affiliated organizations by using their influence. In addition to the top party positions, Mohiuddin and his family members have become members of parliament, district council chairman, upazila chairman, and municipality mayor.
Apart from himself, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, brother, brother’s wife, and nephews have also sat on top positions in various party committees as well as in multiple chairs of local government public representatives. In short, the Mohiuddin family has completely controlled the District Awami League in the past 16 years. The ordinary leaders and activists of the party were cornered by the dominance of the dynasty.
After the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, Mohiuddin went into hiding. After a few days, when Awami League leaders and activists started returning from their fugitive status, he also came out in public. He immediately began to influence Awami League politics in Munshiganj. In 1984, Mohiuddin was elected as the general secretary of the district Awami League. In 1986, he was elected as the member of parliament from Munshiganj-4 constituency in the national parliament election. In 1991, he became the president of the district Awami League through the conference. Since then, Mohiuddin has held this top position.
During this period, there are allegations of money laundering, abuse of power and irregularities in projects, including amassing huge illegal wealth in the country and abroad, against this powerful family. Mohammad Mohiuddin owns four real estate companies. His second wife, Advocate Sohana Tahmina, earned illegal money in various ways, including abuse of power, extortion, and land grabbing. There is no end to irregularities in his brother, son and other members of the family. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has started investigating the irregularities and illegal wealth of this family.
Mohiuddin was identified as one of the top 50 corrupt people during the controversial 1-11 in 2007. He remained a fugitive for a long time at that time. Four years later, he became the chairman of the district council in 2011. Since then, Mohiuddin has been in control of the district council for 13 consecutive years.
With the fall of the Awami League government on August 5 this year, the darkness of atrocities has descended on the Mohiuddin family. On that day, members of the Mohiuddin family fled from their residence in the city’s Courtgaon area. They are in hiding. Among them, Mohiuddin’s daughter-in-law, former mayor of Munshiganj Municipality Chowdhury Fahria Afrin, is at her residence in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur, but the whereabouts of the rest of the members are unknown.
It is learned that on August 4, three people were killed in a clash between the Awami League and protesters during the student-public movement in Munshiganj city. Almost all of the Mohiuddin family are accused in a separate case filed in the case of the death of a person in the city’s North Islampur area. In the case of the death of Sajal Molla (30) during the anti-discrimination student movement, on September 20, Mohammad Mohiuddin and his son, former member of parliament from Munshiganj-3 constituency Md. Faisal Biplob, Sajal’s younger brother Saiful Molla filed a murder case with Sadar Police Station, accusing 451 people, including 451 others. Earlier, Ruma Akhtar, wife of Shaheed Riazul Faraji, filed a murder case as a plaintiff on August 20, and Shefali Begum, grandmother of Shaheed Nur Mohammad alias Dipjol, filed a murder case as a plaintiff on August 30, at the same police station.
The Awami League formed the government through the 9th National Parliament election in 2008. After that, the Awami League’s sole dominance in Munshiganj came to the hands of Mohiuddin and his family. This family occupied the top positions of various party committees and the chairs of public representatives. Mohiuddin was elected Zila Parishad Chairman unopposed for three terms during the Awami League regime. At the same time, his brother Anisuzzaman Anis was elected Chairman of Sadar Upazila Parishad for four terms.
In 2021, Mohiuddin’s son Md. Faisal Biplob became the mayor of Munshiganj Municipality for the second time. He resigned from the post of mayor and became a candidate for the Member of Parliament from Munshiganj-3 constituency in the 12th national election on January 7, 2024. Biplob was elected as an independent candidate by defeating Awami League candidate Advocate Mrinal Kanti Das and became a member of Parliament. Mohiuddin’s daughter-in-law (Biplob’s wife) Chowdhury Fahria Afreen was elected mayor in the re-election of Munshiganj Municipality.
On the condition of anonymity, the party’s grassroots leaders and activists said that Mohiuddin’s second wife Sohana Tahmina was made the joint general secretary of the district Awami League. Brother Anis was the vice-president. Anis’s wife Tahura Zaman became the president of the district Mahila League. Mohiuddin’s nephew Akhtar-Uzzaman Rajib was the president of the district Jubo League for almost 9 years. And another nephew, Jalaluddin Rumi Rajan, was made the president of the District Muktijoddha Sangsad Son Command. In other words, the leaders and activists of Munshiganj Awami League were held hostage by the Mohiuddin family.
It was not possible to obtain anyone’s statement because influential members of this family, including Mohammad Mohiuddin, were in hiding and their mobile numbers were switched off.
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