Mirza Faqrul Islam Alamgir new president of Bangladesh

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, August 21, 2026

In a long-awaited change of political equations in Bangladesh the veteran minister for local self government and co-operative departments and BNP’s longest-serving secretary general Mirza Faqrul Islam Alamgir (born 1948) has been made the new president of Bangladesh to fill the vacancy created by premature resignation of Md Shahabuddin, a nominee of ousted Awami League who did not have a cozy relationship with the BNP dispensation.

Sources from Bangladesh said that Mirza Faqrul had been a sane and politically prudent voice in the ruling BNP who is endowed with a clear and realistic political perspective. As a leader of BNP and minister he was in favour of policies that would serve the vital national interests of Bangladesh but his political position did not find much favour with the present BNP dispensation that is out to appease the fundamentalist forces in the country and perennially scared of a new lease of life for Awami League. The BNP leadership , specially the prime minister Tarique Rahaman, was keen to rehabilitate Mirza Faqrul in an honourably retired position as he was unable to counter much senior Faqrul on grounds of political calculation and vision. His victory in the election was a foregone conclusion as the BNP has a decisive majority in the National Assembly whose members alone vote in the presidential election.

Faqrul , born in Thakurgaon district, had completed his schooling from his native place and graduated from Dhaka and joined politics early . He had performed important responsibilities under assassinated president Ziaur Rahaman (1977-1981) and gradually rose to become the secretary general of the party under next prime minister Begum Zia . He continued in the post for a long time when present prime minister Tarique Rahaman was in long exile in London for long seventeen years. Sources said that Mirza Faqrul Islam Alamgir commands respect from all sections of people including the minorities because of his liberal approach to politics and this is what made him an eyesore for the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami also.

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