The Interim Government of Bangladesh has established six commissions for state reform. Safar Raj Hossain has been appointed head of the Police Administration Reform Commission. The other eight members are Additional Home Secretary (Public Security Division) Abu Momtaj Sad Uddin Ahmed, Director General of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) Mohammad Iqbal, former Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Harun Chowdhury, former Additional Inspector Generals of Police Sheikh Sajjad Ali and Md Golam Rasul, Dhaka University Law Department Professor Shahnaz Huda, human rights activist ASM Nasiruddin Alan, and a student representative.
Safar Raj Hossain
Safar Raj Hossain served as Secretary of Public Administration from October 14, 2003, to March 20, 2005, during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, and later as Home Secretary until 2007. He was part of the BCS batch of 1977 and served as Deputy Commissioner of Comilla in 2001. He later held the position of Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Planning.
Safar Raj Hossain completed his secondary education at Bogra Zilla School. He earned a master’s degree in physics from Rajshahi University in 1971 and a bachelor’s degree in law in 1973. In 1989, he obtained a master’s degree in public administration and economics from Harvard University in the United States.
After retiring from government service, he worked as a consultant for USAID from 2009 to 2011. In 2010, he served as the director of DESCO and was also involved with a research organization called the Center for Resource Development Studies (CRDS).
Currently, Safar Raj Hossain is the Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Federal Insurance Company.
Regarding the Police Reforms Commission, Safar Raj Hossain, has said that the commission will propose amendments to the 150-year-old Police Act, aiming to transform the Bangladesh Police into a more time-efficient, public-interest, and service-oriented force.
Abu Momtaj Saad Uddin Ahmed
Additional Home Secretary (Public Security Division) Abu Momtaz Saad Uddin Ahmed, also known as "Kislu," is a member of the Police Administration Reform Commission.
He assumed his role as Additional Secretary of the Public Security Division in 2024. Prior to this, he served as Project Director (Additional Secretary) of the ASSET Project, funded by the World Bank, and as MDS (Member Directing Staff) of the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center in Savar. During his time at Dhaka University, he briefly taught at City College.
In 1981, he worked at the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board.
Abu Momtaz Saad Uddin Ahmed hails from Badiul Alam Hat, located in the North Madarsha area of Hathazari Police Station in the Chittagong district. He spent his childhood in Azimpur Colony and attended West End High School in Dhaka.
His father was a BCS bureaucrat, and the family had aspirations for their children to follow in his footsteps and become government officials. Among his 12 siblings, Kislu and his younger sister, Farzana Mumtaz, both ranked on the merit list of the 15th BCS exam and joined the BCS administration cadre.
In the sporting world, Kislu was well-known for his talent in table tennis. From 1977 to 1995, he participated in local, national, and international competitions. Although he had to set aside his passion for table tennis after joining the government service in 1995, he left a lasting mark on Dhaka's table tennis scene, achieving notable success over two decades.
In official circles, he is addressed as "Mumtaz," but friends and family continue to call him "Kislu," the name by which he is also recognized in the sports arena.
Mohammad Iqbal
Mohammad Iqbal, director general of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), is a member of the Police Administration Reform Commission.
He previously served as Director General of NIPORT, joining the organization in November 2013. Throughout his career, he has held leadership positions in various government organizations and projects both within and outside the public sector.
Mohammad Iqbal joined the Bangladesh Civil Service (Administration) Cadre in January 1986 and has since worked in a variety of roles, including staff, command, and instructional positions in diverse geographic areas, including the Chittagong Hill Tracts. His experience spans numerous sectors, including the Secretariat, field administration, narcotics control, urban primary health care, female secondary education, child protection, old-age protection, disability, voluntary organizations, local government institutions, border management, land administration modernization, and electoral process strengthening in Bangladesh.
Iqbal completed his LLM and LLB with honors from the University of Dhaka in 1979. In 1998, he earned a Graduate Certificate in Applied Sciences (IT) from Charles Sturt University in Australia.
He has also worked with various development partners, including UNDP (focused on electoral process reform) and the EU (on female secondary education reform). Additionally, he served as Project Director of the multi-donor Urban Primary Health Care Project II (funded by DFID, ADB, SIDA, UNFPA, and ORBIS International) and worked part-time with the recently concluded UNDP-supported ARISE project and the UNICEF-funded PCAR initiative.
Mohammad Harun Chowdhury
Harun Chowdhury Muhammad, a former divisional commissioner and joint secretary, served as the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2005 and as the Divisional Commissioner of Barisal in 2007.
He was born on September 13, 1952, in Sultanpur village of Raujan Thana, Chittagong. Due to his father's employment, he began his education at Karnaphuli (Project) High School in Kaptai, located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where he passed the SSC examination with first division in 1969. He then attended Chittagong College, completing his Higher Secondary School Certificate under the Comilla Board in 1972.
He went on to earn a bachelor's degree with honors in Economics from Dhaka University in 1976 and a master’s degree in 1977.
Harun Chowdhury’s career began with roles in the Bangladesh Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust, the Planning Commission, and the Development Academy, where he worked from 1978 to 1982. He then joined the Bangladesh Civil Service (Administration) Cadre as part of the 1982 special batch.
In 2003 and 2004, he served as the District Commissioner in Panchagarh and Sylhet, respectively. He was promoted to Joint Secretary in 2005 and joined the Ministry of Home Affairs, and in 2007, he was appointed as the Divisional Commissioner of Barisal. He retired from public service in 2009. During his career, he also served as a Member Directing Staff (MDS) at the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center (BPATC).
In 1994-1995, Harun Chowdhury received a Postgraduate Diploma in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in Mumbai, India. He has authored research papers, and two books have been published about his career: Pahar to Somotol and Chittagramer Bhasha, the latter focusing on research into the language of Chittagong.
Sheikh Sajjad Ali
Sheikh Sajjad Ali is a former additional inspector general of police. Further details of his identity could not be found.
Md Golam Rasul
Former Additional Inspector General of Police Golam Rasul is also a member of the Police Reform Commission.
He joined the Public Service Commission (PSC) on January 30, 2013, and is a member of the 12th BCS Police Batch. He holds a degree in Mass Communications from the University of Dhaka and a master’s in Development Studies from AIUB, Dhaka.
Throughout his career, Golam Rasul has served in various key police units in Bangladesh, including the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, the Special Branch, the Bangladesh Police Academy, and district police forces. He also participated in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in East Timor. In 2001, he was awarded the Inspector General’s ‘Exemplary Good Service Badge’ for his outstanding contributions to the police force.
In addition to his policing duties, Golam Rasul was the editor of the Bangladesh Police magazine The Detective, and he has numerous publications and professional reports on various police-related issues. He played a pivotal role as Member Secretary of the ‘Investigation Directives Committee,’ which produced the Oporadh Todonto Nirdeshika, a practical manual for criminal investigations used by police officers.
Golam Rasul’s areas of interest include police policy planning and reform. He has been involved in developing strategic plans for the Bangladesh Police and creating roadmaps for organizational improvements to enhance the force’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Shahnaz Huda
Shahnaz Huda is a professor in the Law Department at Dhaka University, where she currently serves as the Chairperson. She began her career as a lecturer in the department in 1996.
Shahnaz Huda completed her schooling at Viquarunnisa Noon School & College in 1978 and graduated from Holy Cross College in 1980. She earned her LLB in 1984 and her LLM in 1985 from the University of Dhaka.
In 1996, she obtained a PhD from the University of East London, with her thesis titled “Born to be Wed: Bangladeshi Women and the Formation of the Muslim Marriage Contract”. She later completed a Post-Doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK, in 2009-2010.
Her research and publications focus on various human rights issues, including human rights under emergency situations, Muslim women’s right to divorce, child marriage, the abuse and exploitation of female children in Bangladesh, sexual harassment, and women's human rights.
ASM Nasiruddin Alan
ASM Nasiruddin Elan is a prominent human rights activist and the Director of Odhikar, a human rights organization founded in 1994 with the mission to raise awareness and protect human rights in Bangladesh. Odhikar focuses on promoting civil and political rights while also monitoring and reporting on human rights abuses.
In 2013, following Odhikar's publication of a fact-finding report that exposed extrajudicial killings during a protest at Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar, ASM Nasiruddin Elan, along with Adilur Rahman, was arbitrarily detained. The report claimed that 61 people had died during the 2013 police operation, a figure significantly higher than the official government count of 13.
Odhikar’s work often raised concerns with authorities. In June 2022, the Government’s NGO Affairs Bureau denied the organization's application for renewal, alleging that its publications had "seriously tarnished the state’s image on the international stage." On September 14, 2023, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal sentenced ASM Nasiruddin Elan to two years in prison and imposed a fine of Tk10,000, related to Odhikar's reporting of higher fatality numbers from the 2013 operation.
Despite facing considerable challenges, Odhikar has remained a key voice in advocating for human rights in Bangladesh. The organization is known for its annual reports on deaths along the Bangladesh-India border, which have sparked criticism from the pro-India government due to the sensitive nature of the findings. Elan has been a dedicated activist in pushing for accountability and justice in these and other areas of human rights violations.
