Iajuddin Ahmed

Iajuddin Ahmed (1 February 1931 – 10 December 2012) was a Bangladeshi soil scientist and statesman who served as president of Bangladesh from 2002 to 2009. A professor of soil science at the University of Dhaka, he also took on the chief advisership of the caretaker government in October 2006, a dual role that ended in the military-backed emergency of January 2007. ^{1 2}

Ahmed was born at Nayagaon in Bikrampur, Bengal Presidency, the son of Maulavi Muhammad Ibrahim, a Muslim cleric. (The Arabic article gives his birth date as 28 February 1931; the English article's 1 February, followed here, agrees with the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry cited by another edition.) He passed his matriculation at Munshiganj in 1948, took his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in geology at the University of Dacca in 1952 and 1954, and his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1958 and 1962. ^{1 2}

Returning to Dhaka, he rose to full professor and chairman of the Department of Soil Science, dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences and provost of Salimullah Muslim Hall, and is credited with a process for preserving soil nutrients and releasing them as vegetation needs them. He chaired the Public Service Commission from 1991 to 1993 and the University Grants Commission from 1995 to 1999, led the Federation of University Teachers' Associations in the anti-autocratic movement of the 1990s, and in 2002 became president as the only candidate registered for the election. In 2004 he helped establish the private Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology. ¹

Under the constitution the president could take over as chief adviser of the caretaker government when no agreed candidate was available; Ahmed was sworn in on 29 October 2006 while remaining president. The opposition demanded his resignation, the Awami League alliance finally withdrew from the planned 22 January 2007 election, and on 11 January 2007, with the military's involvement as the article recounts, Ahmed declared a state of emergency, resigned as chief adviser, and appointed the former central banker Fakhruddin Ahmed to the post. He remained president until 12 February 2009, when Zillur Rahman succeeded him. ¹

Ahmed had undergone bypass heart surgery in Singapore in 2006 and further heart surgery in October 2012. He died on 10 December 2012 at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok. His body was flown to Dhaka; after four namaz-e-janaza services — in Bangkok, at his ancestral home in Munshiganj, at Dhaka University Central Masjid and at the Baitul Mukarram national mosque — he was buried at Banani graveyard. ^{1 2}

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