Elias Uddin Mollah (born 2 March 1971) is a

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...

politician and a member of National Parliament of Bangladesh. He was elected from Dhaka-16 constituency.

Biography

Elias was born to Harun Rashid Mollah, who was also an MP, and Ajma Begum. His paternal grandfather, Qudratullah Mollah, served as president of Mirpur union parishad for 27 years straight. Elias attended National Bangla High School. He has not studied beyond intermediate level.

Controversies

2014 Kalshi clashes

In 2014 he was accused of being involved in an arson attack on a refugee camp of Stranded Pakistanis in Mirpur,

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

in which 10 people died. Mollah denied involvement and blamed a "vested conspiracy" against him.

Racism

In 2015 Elias made racist comments about

black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

. After a recent trip to the Congo, he said to journalists:

Our army has gone there (Africa) to civilise those black people. I am sure they will accomplish the task.

He constantly referred to the Congolese as "uncivilized black people" and added "People there are yet to become civilised. They take bath every 15 days. After applying soaps before bath, they do not even use water in a bid to retain the aroma." When pointed out that he was being racist and whether the UN had entrusted the Bangladeshi peacekeepers with the responsibility to make Africans "civilised", Mollah said, "No... we are only assisting them to get civilised."

Corruption allegations

In 2016 he was accused of attempting to illegally occupy private homes.

References

Awami League politicians 1971 births 10th Jatiya Sangsad members Living people 11th Jatiya Sangsad members 9th Jatiya Sangsad members {{AwamiLeague-politician-stub