Serajul Alam Khan

Nizam Mohammad Serajul Alam Khan (6 January 19419 June 2023), commonly known as Serajul Alam Khan , also called as Dada, Dadabhai and by his initials SAK, was a Bangladeshi politician, political analyst, philosopher and writer who spearheaded the Bangladesh liberation movement but also became one of the controlling forces of political polarization in post-independence Bangladesh.

Serajul Alam Khan joined politics in the 1950s–60s as a student and quickly rose to the helm of Chhatra League, the student wing affiliated with the Bengali nationalist Awami League party in Pakistan. He, along with others, founded the Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad (which came to be known as 'Nucleus'), a secret organization whose existence is not directly documented but strongly supported by popular hearsay and conventional history. The organization played a significant role in the Bangladesh Liberation War. He along with Tofael Ahmed, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Abdur Razzaq formed and commanded the Mujib Bahini ( Bangladesh Liberation Force).

Early life Khan was born on 6 January 1941 in Noakhali District in the then Bengal Presidency, British India . His father, Khorshed Alam Khan, was a government officer who retired in 1959 as the Deputy Director of Public Instruction. The Nucleus helped launch the Six point movement, Eleven Points Programme, designed the flag of independent Bangladesh, picked the national anthem, and the national slogan Joy Bangla.

Together with other members of the Nucleus, Khan created the Bangladesh Liberation Force and an armed wing called the Joy Bangla Bahini which would be present throughout East Pakistan by 1970. He was involved in a political struggle with Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani. He developed an ideological difference from Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani, due to the former's advocacy of scientific socialism, thus forming the Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal. In 1975, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani urged him to join BaKSAL, but he refused.

After the 7 November 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état, Khan along with other leaders of Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal were arrested.

Khan died from respiratory failure at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 9 June 2023. He was 82 at the time of his death.