A Correspondent:
Thakurgaon: Orphans at this northwestern district yesterday celebrated the birthday of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir offering special prayers for the elderly politician and seeking eternal blessings for the party’s deceased chairperson and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia.
Alamgir turned 79 on Monday.
Ruhia Salehiya Daruchchunnat Orphanage, which hosts over 200 orphans, celebrated the birthday recit-ing the Holy Qurann (Khatm-e-Quran) and holding a doa mahfil.
A special meal was served at the orphanage to mark the birthday under the auspices of Swechchhasebak Dal’s assistant legal affairs secretary in central committee Advocate Zakir Hossain Jewel.
Prayers were also offered seeking eternal peace of Begum Zia’s departed soul and long lives of BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman and Alamgir and wishing a beautiful Bangladesh in the future.
District Jubo Dal joint general secretary Ansarul Haque, district swechchhasebak dal president Masudur Rahman Munna, Ruhia Thana BNP president Abdul Jabbar, its vice president Abdul Malek Manik, joint general secretary Mokbul Hossain, and leaders of various affiliated organizations were present.
Alamgir was born on January 26 in 1948 in a Muslim family in Thakurgaon.
Many people on the popular social media platform Facebook greeted him on his birthday and wished him good health and political success.
Alamgir is in nuptial with Rahat Ara Begum and the couple is blessed with two daughters with elder one Mirza Shamaruh being a senior scientist in Australia’s Federal Medical Council in Canberra while younger daughter Mirza Safaruh teaches at a school in the capital.
Alamgir completed his graduation and post-graduation in Economics Department from Dhaka Universi-ty. He was involved in leftist politics during his student life.
Later he started his career with teaching profession through the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exami-nation. He resigned from teaching in 1986 and formally entered politics.
Alamgir served as the personal secretary to then Deputy Prime Minister SA Bari in 1979 during the gov-ernment of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman.
He became Thakurgaon Municipality chairman by winning the election in 1988.
In 1992, Alamgir became president of Thakurgaon District BNP and gradually rose through the party ranks, from a member of the executive committee to becoming the party’s secretary general.
He served for a long time as first vice-president and later president of the Jatiyatabadi Krishak Dal be-fore reaching the top leadership of BNP.
Alamgir was appointed acting secretary general of BNP following the death of the party’s the then secre-tary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain in 2011. He became secretary general of BNP in 2016. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Thakurgaon-1 on a BNP ticket in 2001 and appointed as a cabinet member.
Alamgir was imprisoned several times in different political cases during the regime of fascist Awami League.
