The International Crimes Tribunal‑2’s sentencing of former minister and three‑time MP Hasanul Haq Inu, president of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSoD), to 10 years in prison marks a new chapter in one of Bangladesh’s longest and most contentious political careers.
Over more than five decades, Inu has been a Liberation War organizer, Marxist revolutionary, underground insurgent, political prisoner, parliamentarian, cabinet minister and leader of a key Awami League ally.
His political journey mirrors many of the ideological shifts and conflicts that have shaped Bangladesh since independence.
Born on November 12, 1946, in Kushtia, Inu studied chemical engineering at the then East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology, now Buet, graduating in 1970.
Liberation War role
Inu first emerged as a student leader during the mass uprising against Pakistan’s military rule in 1969.
He served as general secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League unit at Buet and became involved with the secret Bangladesh Liberation Front (BLF), better known as the Mujib Bahini.
He participated in military-style marches before the Liberation War and was among the student leaders who formally hoisted the flag of an independent Bangladesh at Paltan Maidan on March 23, 1971.
During the Liberation War, he served as a camp commandant and guerrilla warfare instructor for the Mujib Bahini in India, helping train thousands of freedom fighters.
Armed revolutionary
After independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman appointed Inu as the founding general secretary of Jatiya Krishok League in 1972.
However, ideological differences soon emerged.
Inu and his associates advocated what they described as a socialist revolution, eventually leaving the Awami League to help establish the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSoD), the country’s first major parliamentary opposition party after independence.
The split quickly escalated into confrontation.
JaSoD later formed the armed Gono Bahini, which launched an insurgency against the rulling Awami League government.
Inu served as deputy leader of the force, making him one of the most prominent figures in Bangladesh’s post-independence left-wing armed politics.
November 7 and prison
Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, Inu played a key role in the events surrounding the November 7 uprising alongside retired Colonel Abu Taher.
The movement briefly altered Bangladesh’s political trajectory before being suppressed.
Taher was later executed, while Inu was arrested and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment during the military rule of Ziaur Rahman.
His imprisonment further cemented his reputation among left-wing political activists.
Return to parliamentary politics
Following the restoration of democracy in the 1990s, Inu gradually shifted from revolutionary politics to parliamentary democracy.
He was elected from Kushtia-2 in the 2008 election and retained the seat in the 2014 and 2018 elections.
Although JaSoD remained a relatively small party, it became an important member of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance.
Between 2014 and 2018, Inu served as information minister in the Sheikh Hasina government.
During his tenure, he was one of the government’s most outspoken defenders, frequently criticizing the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami and taking strong positions on media regulation, extremism and secular politics.
Supporters viewed him as a steadfast secular politician committed to the ideals of the Liberation War.
Critics, however, accused him of abandoning his earlier revolutionary ideals by becoming part of the political establishment he once opposed.
