Full Name: Shajahan Siraj 

Affiliation: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)

Current Position: Deceased

Date of Birth: March 01, 1943

Date of Death: July 14, 2020

Place of Birth: Bangladesh

Home District: Tangail

Constituency: 133, Tangail-4

Term: Fifth (2nd-1979, 4th-1988, 5th-1991, 6th-1996 February, 8th-2001)

Nationality: Bangladeshi

Profile:

Shajahan Siraj (1 March 1943 – 14 July 2020) was a Bangladeshi politician and one of the organizers of the liberation war. He was one of the student leaders during the liberation war. He was the general secretary of Chhatra League during the 1971 war of independence. In the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad elections, he was elected a Member of Parliament 3 times on the nomination of JSD and 2 times on the nomination of BNP. Shahjahan Siraj also served as Minister of Forests and Environment in Khaleda Zia's government after the 2001 elections.

Siraj entered student politics during movement against Hamidur Rahman Education Commission in 1962. At that time he was a student of Kortia Sadat College in Tangail. Then he came up in student politics through Chhatra League. He was twice elected VP of the Student Parliament of Kortia Sadat College in 1964-65 and 1966-67. As an active student leader, he participated in the 11-point movement and the mass uprising of 1969. He then served as the General Secretary of the undivided Chhatra League for the period 1970-72. He was an activist of Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad (also known as Nucleus) and leader of Chhatra Sangram Parishad.

Siraj was one of the organizers of the freedom fighter and liberation war of Bangladesh. He was one of the so-called 'four caliphs' during the war of liberation. On 1 March 1971, he played a leading role in the formation of Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad along with student leaders like Sirajul Alam Khan, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Abdul Quddus Makhan, Noor Alam Siddiqui, ASM Abdur Rob. ASM Abdur Rob hoisted the flag of independent Bangladesh on March 2, 1971 at Battala of Dhaka University. From there it was planned to read the Declaration of Independence the next day. According to the decision, Shahjahan Siraj read out the Declaration of Independence in front of Bangabandhu at a huge student rally at Paltan Maidan on 3 March 1971. When the war started, he also served as the commander of the Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF) or Mujib Bahini.

After the war of liberation, he took a stand for the formation of an all-party socialist government and played a role in the formation of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), which was the first opposition party in independent Bangladesh. Siraj was the founding assistant general secretary of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD). He was later elected president of the JSD. He was elected a Member of Parliament from Tangail-4 constituency of the Jatiya Sangsad three times on the nomination of the JSD. He joined the BNP led by Begum Khaleda Zia in 1995. He was also elected Member of Parliament from the same constituency twice in the nomination of BNP. He served as a Minister of Environment and Forest (2001-2004) and Minister of Textiles (2004-2006) for the Government of Bangladesh during BNP's tenure. During his tenure as the environment minister, the use and production of plastic shopping bags (polythene bags) were banned in Bangladesh, 3-stroke scooters were withdrawn from the road and social tree plantation turned into a movement.

Siraj died on 14 July 2020 at a hospital in Dhaka after suffering from cancer.

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