Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman

Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman was born on 25 September 1949 in Krishnapur village, Balithuba East Union, Faridganj upazila, Chandpur District, into the Miazi family (his ancestral home is known as Miazi Bari). His father was Moulvi Abdul Hamid and his mother was Ayesha Khatun. He grew up in rural Chandpur in what was then East Bengal, later East Pakistan, and his education began at a madrasah.

He earned a Kamil degree in Hadith from Faridganj Majidia Kamil Madrasah in 1965. He passed his higher secondary examination at Chandpur Government College in 1967. At the University of Dhaka he studied Bengali language and literature, completing his bachelor's degree in 1970 and his master's degree in 1971. He later undertook advanced study and training in journalism in Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

He began reporting in 1970 as the Dhaka University correspondent of The Daily Ittefaq. After independence he joined the paper and served it for 32 years as staff reporter, senior reporter and special correspondent, retiring in 2002. He then wrote as an independent columnist for national dailies. He was twice general secretary of the Jatiya (National) Press Club and was elected its president for two consecutive terms, 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018. He was the founding president of the Bangladesh Parliament Journalists Association (BPJA) and served as chairman and chief editor of the private satellite channel Citizen TV.

He joined the Bangladesh Chhatra League in 1965, took part in the 1969 mass uprising and fought in the 1971 Liberation War. As an Awami League nominee he contested Chandpur-4 (Faridganj) in earlier elections without success, then won the seat in the 30 December 2018 general election,. He served in the 11th Jatiya Sangsad from January 2019 and was re-elected in January 2024 to the 12th Jatiya Sangsad. His term ended when parliament was dissolved on 6 August 2024 after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government. He also served as an adviser to the Sector Commanders Forum.

He lived in Banani, Dhaka. He was married and had a son and a daughter; the names of his wife and children were not given in the obituaries reviewed. Sheikh Hasina publicly described him as a university classmate and friend. His nephew Robiul Hasan spoke to the press on behalf of the family after his death.

He identified throughout his life with the Awami League and with the values of the 1971 Liberation War. He spoke at events on what he called the distortion of Liberation War history and advised the Sector Commanders Forum, a body of war veterans that campaigned for the trial of war criminals and for preserving the history of the independence struggle.

He is remembered as a freedom fighter turned reporter who spent three decades at The Daily Ittefaq, led the Jatiya Press Club in two consecutive terms, founded the parliamentary reporters' association and later became one of a number of senior journalists to enter parliament. Journalist organisations, including the Bangladesh Parliament Journalists Association, issued statements of mourning on the day of his death.

He was recognised as a Bir Muktijoddha (freedom fighter) for his part in the 1971 Liberation War. No individual journalism awards were listed in the obituaries reviewed.

Both of his parliamentary victories came in the 2018 and 2024 elections, which were disputed or boycotted by the main opposition, and Bengali-language sources record local criticism of him in Faridganj. The licence for Citizen TV, the channel he chaired, was obtained in his name in 2017, but the channel never went on air. In a written complaint dated 30 May 2024 and a letter to the media on 1 June 2024, he alleged that in 2019 he had been taken from his Banani home around midnight to the Westin Hotel in Dhaka, where Benazir Ahmed (then head of the Rapid Action Battalion), Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat and his distant cousin Razzakul Hossain Tutul made him sign over 70 percent of the channel's shares under threat. Prothom Alo later reported the shares were split 30 percent in his name, 30 percent in the names of Benazir Ahmed's two daughters, 25 percent to Nafeez Sarafat and 15 percent to Tutul; Nafeez Sarafat dismissed the account as fabricated. A Supreme Court lawyer then asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate everyone involved, including Shafiqur Rahman himself, for not acting on his own allegation. After the August 2024 uprising he was reported to have gone into hiding.

He fell ill at his home in Banani, Dhaka, on Friday 23 October 2026. According to his family, as reported by The Financial Express, Dhaka Mail and the Daily Observer, he suffered a stroke and was admitted in critical condition to the ICU of United Hospital, where he died at about 2:30 pm on Saturday 24 October 2026, aged 77. UNB reported a heart attack, while The Business Standard, quoting his nephew, said he fell in the bathroom at home and was declared dead at Evercare Hospital. Some outlets gave his age as 82. He was survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Funeral and burial details had not been published at the time of writing.