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Osmany, (General) Mohammad Ataul Ghani (1918-1984) commander-in-chief
of the Liberation Forces and of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Ataul Ghani
Osmany was born at Sunamganj on 1 September 1918. He passed the matriculation
examination in 1934 from Sylhet Government High School, and obtained his
graduation from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1938. In 1939, he joined
the Royal Armed Forces as Gentleman Cadet.
But instead of joining the Indian Civil Service he completed
the military course from the British Indian Military Academy in
Deradun, and joined the Royal Army as a commissioned officer (1940).
He was promoted to the rank of major in 1942 and was appointed
commander of a battalion. He was engaged in war at the Burma sector
in the Second World War as a commander of the British army. On
completion of senior army officers' course in 1947 he was selected
for appointment as lieutenant colonel.
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MAG Osmany |
After the partition of India Osmany joined the Pakistan
army on 7 October 1947, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel
on the day following. He obtained P.S.C degree in 1948 from the Quetta
Staff College. He was then appointed a deputy to the Chief of General
Staff of the army (1949). Between 1950 and 1955 Osmany held the positions
of the director of rifle company in the nineth battalion of the Fourteenth
Punjab Regiment, additional commandant of the East Pakistan Rifles, and
general staff officer of the army. He was promoted to the post of colonel
in 1956 and was appointed deputy director of general staff and military
operations in the army headquarters, a position which he held for ten
years till his retirement on 16 February 1967.
Ataul Ghani Osmany joined the awami
league in 1970. He was elected a member of the Pakistan National
Assembly in 1970 as a nominee of Awami League. With the formation of mujibnagar
government on 17 April 1971, Osmany was appointed commander
in chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces and of the Liberation Forces.
After liberation of the country Osmany was elevated to the rank of General
of the Bangladesh Armed Forces with effect from the date 16 December 1971.
With the abolition of the post of Commander in Chief on 7 April 1972,
Osmany retired from the service. He was then included in the cabinet of
Bangabandhu sheikh
mujibur rahman as Minister in charge of Shipping, Inland Water
Transport and Aviation. Osmany was elected a member of the jatiya
sangsad in 1973, and was included in the new cabinet with charge
of the Ministries of Post, Telegraph and Telephone, Communication, Shipping,
Inland Water Transport and Aviation. He resigned from the cabinet in may
1974. After the introduction of one-party system of government through
the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution in 1975, he resigned from the
Jatiya Sangsad and also from the primary membership of the Awami League.
MAG Osmany was appointed an Adviser to the President in charge of Defence Affairs by khondaker mostaq ahmad on 29 August 1975. But he resigned immediately after the killing of four national leaders inside the Dhaka Central Jail on 3 November.
Osmany launched a new political party styled as Jatiya
Janata Party in September 1976 and was elected its president. He contested
in the presidential elections in 1978 as a nominee of the Democratic Alliance.
He contested in the presidential elections once again in 1981 as a nominee
of Jatiya Nagarik Committee (National Citizens Committee). A life long
bachelor Osmany died on 16 February 1984 while under treatment of cancer
in London. [Muazzam Hussain Khan] |
