Mohabbat Jan Chowdhury

Mohabbat Jan Chowdhury (; 1933 or 1934 – 24 August 2026) was a Bangladeshi Army major general, politician and home minister. He served as the director general of DGFI.

Background Mohabbat Jan Chowdhury was born into a Bengali Muslim family who were erstwhile Zamindars of Khanpur in Gopalganj. His father, Said Jan Chowdhury (died 1984), was a civil servant and the son of Zamindar Rahmat Jan Chowdhury of Khanpur. His great-grandfather, Ahmad Jan Chowdhury, was one of the two sons of Azim Chowdhury, the Zamindar of Dulai in Sujanagar, Pabna District. Through him, he was a descendant of Sharfuddin Sarkar, a nobleman who migrated to Dulai from Samarkand in Turkestan. Mohabbat's mother belonged to the aristocratic zamindar family of Ulania, who traced their ancestry to Persia.

Career Chowdhury trained at the Pakistan Military Academy and joined the Pakistan Army in September 1955 as a second lieutenant. He served in a number of positions, including in staff headquarters, military training schools, and Inter-Services Intelligence. He said the results of the referendum of President Ziaur Rahman, in which he won 98.88 percent of the votes, were inflated by the administration, which he described as unnecessary. He was the director general in 1981 during the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman. After the assassination, Chowdhury and National Security Intelligence (NSI) Director General ASM Hakim played a double game, both supporting senior minister Shah Aziz, but also helping Hossain Mohammad Ershad's efforts to seize power. He kept Major General Moinul Hossain Chowdhury, head of the investigation into the assassination, under surveillance.

Chowdhury, after retirement, joined politics. He was the minister for home affairs, minister of relief and rehabilitation, minister of establishment, and minister of food in the cabinet of President Hussain Mohammad Ershad. He was the chairman of two businesses, Dynamic Communications and Taurus Knitwear.