Mohammad Ali Arafat

Bangladeshi politician (born 1973) Mohammad Ali Arafat (born 2 May 1973) is a Bangladeshi politician and academic associated with Bangladesh Awami League. He served as the Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the fifth Hasina Cabinet. He was a two-time member of the parliament representing Dhaka-17 constituency. He is also the founder and chairperson of Suchinta Foundataion, a non-profit think tank and research centre. Following the resignation of Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024, he left Bangladesh and has since been living in self imposed exile. In October 2024, International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant against him over alleged crimes during the 2024 quota reform movement, and sought Interpol assistance for a possible Red Notice. However, he called the tribunal as a 'political show trial'. During his tenure, Arafat defended his government's response to the 2024 Bangladesh Quota Reform Movement, attributing the unrest to the involvement of third-party actors, including extremists group, though a report by the OHCHR found evidence of brutal and systematic repression of the protests by his government. He threatened to shut down s