Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury

Chowdhury had to resign on 2 April 2009 after the Awami League ascended to rule. Without his knowledge, the Moeen group had filed cases at night; they arrested former prime ministers and leaders of the two major parties, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, of the BNP and Awami League, respectively. Awami League MP's, led by Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, strongly criticised Mashhud in the parliament for appointing majority of the directors of the commission from the armed forces, and he resigned. Bangladesh Nationalist Party MPs, led by Moudud Ahmed, supported the Awami position.

In 2007, Chowdhury was appointed as chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission. He served nearly two years until April 2009 and resigned during Sheikh Hasina's government period.

On 22 February 2007, Chowdhury was appointed as chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission. He said he would undertake a sustained battle against corruption, and numerous people were prosecuted for graft.

After Chowdhury retired from his career with the Bangladesh Army, in October 2006 he was appointed as an adviser of the interim caretaker government. Chowdhury and three other advisers, Akbar Ali Khan, C M Shafi Sami and Sultana Kamal, resigned in December .

At the start of October 2006, as the confusion about Chief Justice K.M. Hasan started, he expressed his inability. Though he finally agreed to take the duty after the situation had changed. Then Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami proposed his name to become an adviser to the interim Caretaker Government. The Awami League (AL) nominated Sultana Kamal and Sheikh Hasina was consulted on C. M. Shafi Sami by Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, as part of the AL quota.

On 16 June 2002, he was promoted from Major General to Lieutenant General and appointed Chief of Army Staff, the highest position for an army officer. After serving three years, Chowdhury was asked to extend his term, but he refused. He said, "... three years was sufficient to prove the credibility of an army chief. Secondly those who are new were ready and interested for this responsibility.

After one year, he was appointed as Chief of General Staff and then as Commandant of the National Defence College from 1 March 2000 to 31 December 2000. Passed over when M Harun-Ar-Rashid was made Chief of Army Staff on 25 December 2002, Chowdhury chose to serve as an envoy and was appointed Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, where he helped Bangladeshi immigrants.

Upon his return, he was commissioned as a Brigade Commander at Khagrachhari, Chittagong Hill Tracts. After that he was posted at Defence Services Command and Staff College at Mirpur. One year later he became Area Commander, Bogra Area and General Officer Commanding of the 11th Infantry Division after a turmoil inside the army in 1996.

In June 1991, after returning from the Gulf war, Chowdhury was elected for training at the United States Army War College (USAWC). At the same time he earned a Master of Public Administration degree at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from USAWC in 1992. As part of the training, he toured other military forces in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.

After some time he was promoted into brigade commander at Savar. At the time of the Gulf War in 1990, he commanded a Bangladesh Military contingent that took part in the war. He and his forces were stationed for nine months in different places across Saudi Arabia. He described his experience as "tough but professionally pleasing."

Later that year, he was assigned to Dhaka to join the 9th Infantry Division. He received advanced training at the Defence Services Command and Staff College, Mirpur, graduating in 1979. For two years, he served as an instructor there, before being assigned to Alikadam of Chittagong Hill Tracts. From there he went to Bangladesh Military Academy at Bhatiari and later returned to Dhaka.

After 3 years of serving with the Bangladesh Army, he married 'Zarnigar' in 1977.

In January 1974, Chowdhury was finally released and returned to Independent Bangladesh, where he joined the Bangladesh Army. Later he joined the 17th East Bengal Regiment. In 1975 he became a brigade major of the 46 Infantry Brigade Headquarters at Dhaka. Later he returned to 17th East Bengal Regiment as a captain. In 1977 he was assigned to Ruma of Chittagong Hill Tracts.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, Chowdhury was interned by the West Pakistanis as an enemy officer because of his birth and rearing in Eastern Pakistan. He recalled later, "I was interned in a remote place surrounded by mountains. We were treated as prisoners of war. It was clear to me that we would be used to exchange for West Pakistani prisoners of war in India." He was held in West Pakistan from 1972 to 1974 and described the period as "miserable and wastage of time and working ability."

The Pakistani Army sent Chowdhury to the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul in West Pakistan. On 20 April 1969, he was commissioned into the Frontier Force Regiment. He worked in Karachi, Lahore, Azad Kashmir and Sindh. He went to Quetta a few times for training.

After passing SSC from Sylhet Government Pilot High School in 1964, he was admitted to Notre Dame College, Dhaka and moved to Dhaka. In 1966 he transferred to the Economics Department of the University of Dhaka. One year later Chowdhury decided to join the army.

Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury (born 9 September 1948) was a Bangladesh Army general who was 11th Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army from 16 June 2002 to 15 June 2005. He was the last officer to serve in this position who had first been commissioned by and served with the Pakistani Army, before the Liberation War of 1971. He served for two years before the war.