Veteran Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed has been put on life support while undergoing treatment at Square Hospital in Dhaka. His brother-in-law Abul Kalam Azad confirmed the matter to TIMES of Bangladesh.
Tofail Ahmed was elected as a Member of the National Parliament nine times. Most recently, he was elected as a Member of Parliament from the Bhola-1 constituency.
A member of the Bangladesh Awami League’s Advisory Council, he also served as the Minister of Commerce.
He was recently admitted to a hospital in Dhaka as his physical condition deteriorated.
Family members reported that a part of his body had become paralysed due to a stroke. He had been moving around in a wheelchair for the past few years.
Tofail Ahmed was born on 22 October, 1943, in Koralia village, Bhola district. After completing his ISC and BSc degrees from BM College in Barisal, he enrolled in the Soil Science department at the University of Dhaka. He also completed his Master’s degree in the same department.
Tofail Ahmed became active in politics from his college days. In 1964, he was elected as the Sports Secretary of the Dhaka University Iqbal Hall (now Shaheed Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall) student union. Subsequently, in 1965, he was elected Vice-President of the Soil Science department, and in 1966-67, he was elected Vice-President of the Iqbal Hall student union.
From 1967 to 1969, he served as the Vice President (VP) of Ducsu. He played a significant role in the mass uprising of 1969.
That same year, Tofail Ahmed was elected president of the Chhatra League. On June 7, 1970, he formally joined the Awami League. In the 1970 election, he was elected a member of the Pakistan National Assembly from the Bhola (Daulat Khan-Tazumuddin-Monpura) constituency at just 27 years of age.
Tofail Ahmed was one of the key organisers of the Liberation War and one of the four area commanders assigned to the Mujib Bahini. He was responsible for the western zone of the Mujib Bahini, which comprised the districts of Barishal, Patuakhali, Khulna, Faridpur, Jashore, Kushtia, and Pabna.
