Gazi Golam Mostafa (died 19 January 1981) was a
Bangladesh Awami League
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 ...
politician and a former member of the
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wi ...
provincial assembly. He was nicknamed the "Lord of the Bastis". ("Basti" means "slum" in Bengali.)
Career
Mostafa was a former president and general secretary of the Dhaka city Awami league.
He was a close associate of
Sheikh Mujib, the first president of Bangladesh, and often said to be his right-hand man. He was a former chairman of the
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (also abbreviated as BDRCS) is a humanitarian organization and auxiliary to the Government of Bangladesh. The organization was established in 1973 as the Bangladesh Red Cross Society through the Presidents Orde ...
and the former President of
Awami League's
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 i ...
city unit.
As President of Awami League's Dhaka City Unit, he and then Treasurer of Dhaka Metropolitan Awami League,
R.K Chowdhury spoke about organizational activities of the city, how can it be better and where was the problem. R.K Chowdhury, Mostafa and
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...
used to discuss these issues regularly in the evenings. Gazi Golam Mostafa was known to be very tough, powerful, and free-wheeling.
He was also known to be extremely corrupt. There are allegations against him that during the famine of 1974, as the chairman of the Red Crescent Society, he took hold of millions of blankets and tins of baby food sent to Bangladesh as relief for the people through foreign aid, and he began to profit out of these goods by selling to the people for whom it was sent. It is said that one out of 7 tins of baby food and one out of 13 blankets sent as relief reached the poor during the famine.
Major Dalim's Abduction
In 1974, Mostafa kidnapped Major
Shariful Haque Dalim and his wife from the
Dhaka Ladies Club after an argument. It was
Dalim's cousin's wedding reception in the
Dhaka Ladies Club.
Dalim's only brother-in-law Bappi (his wife Nimmi's brother) was attending from Canada. Mostafa's son occupied the chair in the row behind Bappi and pulled Bappi's hair from the back. Bappi scolded the boy for his behavior and told him not to sit on the row behind him anymore. Mostafa's sons (who were close friends of
Sheikh Kamal) and some associates forcefully abducted
Dalim, Nimmi, the groom's mother, and two of
Dalim's friends (both of whom were distinguished freedom fighters) in
Microbuses owned by the
Red Crescent
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
. Mostafa was taking them to the
Rakhi Bahini headquarters but later took them to the residence of
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...
.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...
mediated a compromise between them and made Mostafa apologize to Nimmi. When news of the abduction spread, the 1st Bengal Lancers ransacked Mostafa's and took his whole family prisoner. They also set up check posts all over the city searching for
Major Dalim and the abductees. Some officers lost their jobs as a result. The officers involved, including
Shariful Haque Dalim, were later orchestrators of the coup on 15 August 1975 and the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Imprisonment
After the fall of Sheikh Mujib's regime, he was caught by the public while trying to flee with huge amount of money to India via the border. He was jailed and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by a martial law court, and released on 28 March 1980 during the regime of General Zia.
Death
After his release from jail, he was planning to visit the holy shrine of
Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti at Ajmer and thus moved with his family to India where he stayed in Delhi for some time. While traveling to Ajmer by car, he and his entire family were killed when a huge truck ran over their car. He died on 19 January 1981.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mostafa, Gazi Golam
Awami League politicians
Year of birth missing
1981 deaths
People from Dhaka
Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League executive committee members
Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League central committee members