Lutfozzaman Babar

Lutfozzaman Babar (Bengali: লুৎফুজ্জামান বাবর, born 10 October 1958) is a Bangladeshi politician, served as the State Minister of Home Affairs in the Khaleda Zia Cabinet from 2001 to 2006, as a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).^[1]

Babar was the youngest member in the cabinet of BNP-Jamaat led coalition government, and received media and public attraction alike due to his alternative clothing style, spike-cut hair, and various quips. He was also among the pioneers in forming the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite force widely criticized for extra-judicial killings.^[2] Throughout his tenure as a politician, Babar was accused of being involved in various controversies.^[3][4][5]

Babar was born on October 10, 1958, in a wealthy Bengali Muslim family with origins from remote Netrokona.^[6] His father A.K. Lutfur Rahman, was senior officer of the Bangladesh Police who was a part of the then-President Ziaur Rahman's security team, and as such, had personal connections to Zia and his wife Khaleda Zia^[3] and his mother was Zobaida Rahman. Babar is the third among four brothers and three sisters. Babar grew up in the neighborhood of Maghbazar in the capital, Dhaka. He is either a secondary school graduate (class 9–10) or a college graduate (class 11–12).^[7][3][8]

His wife, Tahmina Zaman Sraboni, was a candidate for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from the Netrakona-4 constituency in the 2018 Bangladeshi general election. The couple has one son, Labib Ibn Zaman, and one daughter, Tasfia Binte Zaman.^[9][10]

According to various local media, Babar was involved in the students’ politics. In the 1990s mass-uprising, Babar was against the rule of military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad.  By 1991, he joined the central committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and became a lawmaker from Netrokona-4 constituency. A report of Daily Star stated that, Babar made a fortune through the illicit smuggling of Casio digital watches.^[2] He was popularly known as Casio Babar.^[11]

By 1996, he joined the central committee of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and became a lawmaker from Netrokona-4 constituency.^[7] Babar was elected to parliament twice from Netrokona-4 constituency during 1991–1996 and 2001–2006.^[12] In 2001, he was appointed as the Minister of State for Home Affairs as the youngest member of the Khaleda Zia Cabinet.^[13]

After the 2005 Netrokona bombing, Babar initially blamed the attack on a Hindu man, Yadav Das, who was killed in the explosion. However, on 15 December 2005, he rescinded his statement and said Yadav was innocent.^[14][15][16]

On 27 December 2008, Babar was expelled from BNP after contesting the 2008 Bangladeshi general election as an independent candidate despite being in prison.^[17] In December 2009, BNP withdrew the expulsion order against him and reinstated him in the party.^[18]

From 2001 to 2006, Lutfozzaman Babar served as the State Minister for Home Affairs.^[19] He has key role in the establishment of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in 2004. He played a role BNP government’s crackdown on Islamic militancy and capture of Siddiqur Rahman, widely known as Bangla Bhai, a top leader of the militant group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

During the 2007 state of emergency in Bangladesh, Babar was arrested from his Gulshan residence on 28 May for possessing illegal firearms.^[18] On 30 October, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for keeping a revolver illegally and another 7 years for keeping 25 rounds of bullets illegally. He was found guilty by a special tribunal set up by the caretaker government.^[20] On 1 December 2008, he lost his division status in the prison after he had been caught twice in possession of contraband cellphones.^[21]

The 2004 Dhaka grenade attack on 21 August on an Awami League rally killed Ivy Rahman, wife of former President Zillur Rahman, along with 23 others and wounded more than 500 people.^[22] According to the April 2011 confessional statements by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, upon his request, Tarique Rahman, then senior joint secretary general of BNP, assigned Babar, then state home minister, and Abdus Salam Pintu, then deputy industries minister, to provide assistance to the HUJI men to carry out the attack.^[22] Hannan met Babar among others in a meeting in Hawa Bhaban, the political office of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.^[22] On 18 August 2004, three days before the attack, the HUJI leaders met Babar at the residence of Pintu.^[23] In March 2012, a Dhaka court framed charges against 30 accused, including Babar, in the supplementary charge sheet of the case.^[23][24] According to the charges, Babar and Pintu assured all administrative assistance regarding the attack.^[23] Also Maulana Tajuddin, supplier of the grenades, also a brother of Pintu, left Bangladesh for Pakistan on instructions from Babar.^[25] On 10 October 2018, Babar was given death penalty on charges of killing through criminal conspiracy.^[5] He had appealed the verdict.^[26] It was found that the confession statement given by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) leader, Mufti Abdul Hannan was forced.^[27]

Lutfuzzaman Babar later gave a court statement under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code addressing the incident.^[28] In his statement, Babar shared his background as a political and former BNP Member of Parliament. He recounted that he was in his office when the explosions occurred and immediately responded by communicating with security personnel and police officials, sending ambulances, and instructing authorities to control the situation. He denied any involvement in the attack, claiming he took all necessary measures to ensure justice and support the investigation. Babar also highlighted the government’s actions, including the formation of a judicial investigation commission, seeking assistance from Interpol and the FBI, and offering a reward of one crore taka for information about the attackers.^[29]

On November 22, 2024, the High Court concluded a hearing on the appeals and death references of the August 21 grenade attack cases and set to deliver its verdict on any day.^[30][31] On 1 December 2024, Babar was acquitted by high court in this case.^[32][33]

On 1 April 2004, Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh Coast Guard interrupted a loading of 10 trucks and seized illegal arms and ammunitions at a jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) on the Karnaphuli River.^[34] Babar, the then state home minister, visited the area the next day to inspect the seized arms.^[34]

After the 2008 Bangladeshi general election, when Awami League formed the government, fresh investigation started on this case. On 30 September 2010, in a statement to a Chittagong court, Sabbir Ali, the then-police commissioner of Chittagong metropolitan police, said that Babar directed him not to arrest National Security Intelligence officials engaged in helping offload arms and ammunition at the jetty on 2 April 2004. on 3 October, Babar was arrested for direct involvement in that arms haul.^[35][36] On 15 March 2012, former Directorate General of Forces Intelligence chief Sadik Hasan Rumi told Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 that Babar might have links to the smuggling of the arms since Babar forbade him not to conduct an independent investigation into the incident following the seizure.^[37] On 30 January 2014, Babar was sentenced to death for his role in the case.^[4] Later it was found that Sadik Hasan Rumi has given his statement under the pressure of Awami government as his family members were trapped and tortured. However, On 18 December 2024, Babar was acquitted by high court in this case.^[38][39][40]

Babar was sued by the Anti-Corruption Commission for hiding information about wealth worth about Tk 7.6 crore in the wealth statement, which he didn’t own.^[41] On 16 September 2008, he was granted bail on the case.^[42] On 2024, High Court acquitted Babar in that corruption case where he had been sentenced to eight years in prison.^[43]

On January 27, 2005, former finance minister Shah A M S Kibria was severely injured in a grenade attack on his way out after attending an Eid post-celebration rally of the Awami League in Baidyer Bazar, Habiganj Sadar Upazila. He died on the way to Dhaka. His nephew Shah Manjurul Huda, local Awami League leaders Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain, and Siddiq Ali were also killed in the attack. Seventy others were injured. On the day after the incident, Abdul Majid Khan, who was the then Organizing Secretary of the District Awami League and former Member of Parliament, filed a murder case, while the police filed another case under the Explosive Substances Control Act. Later, both cases were transferred to the CID. Upon investigation, on March 18, 2005, the CID submitted the first charge sheet to the court, accusing 10 people, including Abdul Kaiyum, the Central President of the Shaheed Zia Memorial and Research Council.^[44] However, the plaintiffs filed a no-confidence petition against the charge sheet in court. In 2007, the case was handed back to the CID for reinvestigation. In the second phase, on June 20, 2011, the charge sheet was submitted against 26 people, increasing the number of accused by 16.^[45] The plaintiffs also raised objections to this. Later, on November 13, 2014, the fifth investigating officer of the case, Meherunnesa Parul, who was then the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Sylhet region, submitted a supplementary charge sheet to the court.^[46] This charge sheet newly accused 35 people, including Babar, the late Haris Chowdhury, the then political secretary to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, former mayor of Sylhet Ariful Haque Choudhury and former mayor of Habiganj GK Gaus.^[47][48] However, Asma Kibria, widow of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, rejected the supplementary charge sheet in the case filed for her husband's murder around six and a half years back.^[49]

On September 4, 2024, the lawyers of Lutfozzaman Babar submitted a bail hearing petition in four cases in Sylhet. The judge then scheduled the bail hearing for September 11. The following day, on September 13, Babar was granted bail in two cases related to the murder of former Finance Minister Shah A.M.S. Kibria and two cases related to the attempted murder of former Railways Minister Suranjit Sengupta.^[45][50]

On January 14, 2025, the High Court acquitted Babar and 4 others in another case related to the 10 trucks arms and ammunition.^[51][52][53] He was released from Keraniganj Central Jail on 16 January 2025 after being acquitted of all cases.^[54][55] His imprisonment ended after seventeen and a half years.^[56] Thousands of BNP activists, supporters, affiliates gathered near the jail awaiting his release.^[57]

Babar visited the Ministry of Home Affairs on 14 September) 2025 nearly 18 years after leaving office, to pay a courtesy call on Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.^[58]

His quote "We are looking for shotruz" (where -z was used as -s in English, after Bengali shotru 'enemy', creating a Banglish sentence) gained popularity among the social masses and is often used in Bangladeshi popular culture and online memes.^[7][59]

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