Former commodore Mohammed Nurul Absar, a military officer who served 38 years in the force, has been appointed as the chairman of Cox’s Bazar Development Authority.
A government notification issued on Tuesday confirms his post for a three-year term.
Absar was born in Moheshkhali upazila of Cox's Bazar district.
After completing his training in Yugoslav Center for Higher Naval Studies (Now Croatia, Split) and Royal Naval Engineering College, UK in 1986 and 1989 respectively, he returned to Bangladesh.
During his tour of duty in the Navy, he served in various command and staff appointments both in establishments and the fleet.
He was the naval secretary from 2009 to 2013 and played an instrumental role in the policy formulation and development of Bangladesh Navy.
On retiring from Navy in December 29, 2017, he continued on contract service with Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
From 2016 onwards, he was associated with National Defence College in Dhaka.
he was a faculty member in charge of the MPhil thesis project of brigadier generals or major generals, commodores, joint secretaries and more.
He was a senior research fellow at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in Dhaka from 2018.
Absar was also the head of Bangladesh delegation, which took part in UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous People in New York in 2015.
He had actively contributed in other educational training institutes and Think Tanks as guest speaker on different subjects.
Among the noteworthy institutions, Indian Maritime Foundation is where he presented keynote speech on the potentials of Blue Economy.
The ex-commodore was also a keynote speaker at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in Delhi and Raja Ratnam School of International Strategic Studies (RSIS) at Singapore on "Non-Traditional Security of Bangladesh '' and Defence Policy Formulation in Bangladesh " respectively.
He was a regular guest speaker at NDC (War Course), Defense Services Command and Staff College, Naval Academy, Police Staff College and more.
The former commodore is also an experienced peace keeper.
He served in Liberia and Rwanda in different capacities, and taught the subject in the Staff College.
Besides, he also served as the deputy chief operation officer while serving in the UN Missions.
Absar was tasked to help the SRSG (special representative of the secretary-general) in planning and conducting different operations of the mission.
During this time he had a great exposure in working closely with UNDP, UNHCR, UNFP, MSF, Red Cross, and other renowned INGOs in ensuring smooth relief operations for the refugees of the mentioned countries.
The Former commodore was also an expert of cyber and nuclear security.
He was a member of the National Committee on Cyber Security and Physical Security of Rooppur Nuclear Plant.
Absar was awarded with the Letter of Commendation from the First Sea Lord, UK for distinction in the course.
In addition, the former commodore was awarded with the distinguished Peace-Time Medal for contributing in human resource Development of Bangladesh Navy.
Mohammed Nurul Absar did his BSc Engineering in Electronics from "Marshal Tito" Yugoslav Center for Higher Naval Studies (First Class First).
He did his post-graduation on Electronics and Weapon Application at Royal Naval Engineering Course, UK, in 1988 (First Class First).
Later, he did his masters in Defence Studies from National University in 1997 in Dhaka (First Class) and Staff Course from DSCSC, Mirpur.
Later in 2000, he did his MBA from UK’s Trinity University (First Class with Distinction).
The former commodore got his post-graduation degree in Disaster Management at Dhaka University in 2014.
In addition, he became a PhD Fellow at the University of Professionals in Dhaka
The Cox’s Bazar Development Authority, which is under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, was established in July 2015.
The authority is responsible for developing Cox's Bazar into a major tourist city.