Sheikh Lutfur Rahman ( bn, শেখ লুৎফর রহমান; 1881 – 30 March 1975) was a Bangladeshi ''serestadar'', an officer responsible for record-keeping at the Gopalganj civil court in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His son

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 ...

was the founder of

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 ...

. Lutfar was a religious Muslim. He was also the paternal grandfather of the

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina Wazed (''née'' Sheikh Hasina ; ; bn, শেখ হাসিনা ওয়াজেদ, Shēkh Hasinā, , born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since January 2 ...

Early life

Rahman was born in 1881 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family in the village of Tungipara located in

Gopalganj Gopalganj may refer to: Bangladesh *Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, a district of Dhaka Division ** Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a town and headquarter of Gopalganj district ** Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, an upazila of Gopalganj District ** Gopalganj-1, a ...

Faridpur district Faridpur District ( bn, ফরিদপুর জেলা) is a district in south-central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division. It is bounded by the Padma River to its northeast. The district was named after Farīd-ud-Dīn Masʿūd, ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

. He had Iraqi

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

ancestry through his father Sheikh Abdul Hamid, who was a direct descendant of 15th-century Muslim preacher Sheikh Awwal of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. Lutfar Rahman was married to his paternal first-cousin

Sayera Khatun Sheikh Sayera Khatun (1886 – 31 March 1975) was the matriarch of Sheikh-Wazed political family and mother of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh. She was the grandmother of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasin ...

, the daughter of his father's brother Sheikh Abdul Majid. He left home to find a job and worked in the Dewani court, today Gopalganj civil court.

1971 Liberation War

During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Lutfar Rahman and his wife Sheikh Sayera Khatun, along with the family of

were put under arrest by the Pakistan Army. Initially, Lutfar Rahman and his wife were in Khulna at their younger son Naser's house in Khulna, but was later sent away to their ancestral home in

. On 8 April 1971, the Pakistan Army looted ornaments and other valuables from the house and later bulldozed and set fire to it. The soldiers also shot dead four relatives and two servants of the household. The elderly couple were rendered homeless until the local Awami League activists built them a temporary shed which was also destroyed by the Pakistan Army after 20 days. They were then sent away to

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 ...

where they were put under arrest with their elder son's family.

Death and legacy

Rahman died on 30 March 1975. He was buried in Tungipara, Gopalganj district,

. Sheikh Lutfar Rahman Bridge over

Madhumati River The Gorai-Madhumati River ( bn, গড়াই-মধুমতি ''Gôŗai-Modhumoti'') is one of the longest rivers in Bangladesh and a distributary of the Ganges. In the upper reaches it is called the Gorai, and the name changes to Madhuma ...

connecting Gopalganj-Pirojpur Highway. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid on 23 December 2000 by Sheikh Hasina. The construction was stopped in 2001 by the

Bangladesh Nationalist Party The Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল, Bangladesh Jātīyotābādī Dol; BNP) is a centre-right to right-wing nationalist, political party in Bangladesh and one of the major ...

and Jammat-e-Islami government. The construction work resumed in 2009 when

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 ...

returned to power in 2009. The bridge was inaugurated in January 2015 by Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Lutfar Rahman Adarsha Government College is a government college in Kotalipara, Gopalganj.

Descendants

References

{{Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 1975 deaths Sheikh Mujibur Rahman family People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh 1881 births Bangladeshi people of Arab descent