# Nurul Huq (officer)

Nurul Huq (12 January 1936 – 25 January 2021) was a Bangladesh Navy Captain who served as the 1st Chief of Naval Staff from 7 April 1972 to 6 November 1973 and the chairman of BIWTA and BIWTC. Huq served at the Ziaur Rahman ministry as the Minister of Ports Shipping and IWT and one of the founding members of Bangladesh Nationalist Party in which he held and elected as Member of Parliament in 1979 Bangladeshi general election.

## Early Life and Family Background

Huq was born on 12 January 1936 in Dohar Upazila in Dhaka district of Bengal Province in then British India. His mother passed when he was just 7 years old. His father Khan Bahadur Abdul Khaleq was an officer in Education Department. After being retired from government services his father was elected a member of Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946. He was the youngest of six brothers. His immediate elder father Professor Dr Falzur Huq was a teacher in National University of Singapore. His alternative elder brother Brigadier general Feroze Salahuddin Huq was in Pakistan Army who later repatriated with him after Bangladesh Liberation War. General Huq later served as the Military Secretary to the President of Bangladesh and also served as the Bangladesh Ambassador to Singapore. He completed his matriculation from Armanitola Government High School in 1950. He passed intermediate from Dhaka College in 1952.

## Naval career

In 1953, Huq joined the Joint Services Pre-Cadet Training School in Quetta as a cadet of 9th Joint Services Course. After passing out from there, he enrolled to Pakistan Navy Cadet Training School around October 1953. Huq was transferred to Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth from Karachi after six months of instruction. With enthusiasm in engineering, Huq was also voluntarily trained in The Royal Naval Engineering College within his naval training. On 1 January 1957 Huq was commissioned in the Pakistan Navy and completed his basic engineering course in May 1958 from Royal Naval Engineering College. He returned to Pakistan in June 1958 and posted to PNS Jahangir. Later he served at PNS Badr. In March 1960 he went back to The Royal Naval Engineering College to complete his marine engineering specialization course. He returned to Pakistan in April 1961. Huq then was appointed as instructor in PNS Karsaz. He was transferred to PNS Shah Jahan as its Engineer Officer (Chief Engineer). In January 1966 he was posted to East Pakistan at PNS Bakhtiar as the Base Engineer Officer and Staff Officer (Engineering) to Naval Officer-in-charge, Chittagong. In his later years in Pakistan Navy, he was sent to PNS Babur on early 1968. Later he was transferred to the Training Directorate as the Staff Officer-I at Naval Headquarters. He served there until 1972. After the independence of Bangladesh like all other officers Lt.Commander Nurul Huq was also shifted to POWs Camp but he escaped from there and reached Bangladesh on 27 March 1972.

### First Chief of Naval Staff

After his arrival in Bangladesh then Commander in Chief of Bangladesh Army General M.A.G. Osmani appointed him as the commander in chief of the recently Bangladesh Navy and he was upgraded to the rank of Commander. Later on 7 April 1972 he post was as ameliorated as the Chief of Naval Staff with the rank of a captain. Huq established the Naval Headquarters in Dhaka Cantonment and also shifted the Sailors and C.P.O.'s from Eskaton Transit Camp (now the Navy House) to the barracks inside Dhaka Cantonment. Captain Huq played prominent role in establishing the structure of command in Navy he approved a temporary work base structure from the Ministry of Defense and recalled Lieutenant A.M.L.K. Siddiqui and the Volunteer Reserved Officers Lieutenant Islam and Lieutenant Siddiq with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Lieutenant Abdur Rauf was also recalled and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was made the Commanding Officer of Khulna Area Command. He also promoted C.P.O.'s and P.O.'s to Sub Lieutenant for lade on subordinated posts. In April 1972, he was invited to visit India by Admiral Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda then Chief of Indian Navy on a 10-day forum. During his visit to India he was received by Admiral Nanda along with Vice Admiral Kamath and Vice Admiral Krishnan for forum of future Bangladesh Naval equipments. He commissioned first two river gun boats of Bangladesh Navy during his tenure as Chief of Naval Staff. He was directed to take over as Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) in addition to his own duties in Navy. During his tenure as C.N.S. an Indian Navy Patrol Boat was given on loan to Bangladesh Navy and Captain Huq named it The Padma.

## Later career

After the arrival of then Captain M. H. Khan from Pakistan he handed over the charge on 6 November 1973 and became the Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). He retired from the Navy on 31 December 1975. After his retirement from Navy he continued serving at BIWTA which by then was placed under the Ministry of Shipping, Inland, Water Transport and Aviation and was upholded to continue on Contract Service. In May 1977 he was transferred to Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation as its chairman. In September 1977 he resigned from his contract services and joined a private company named High Speed Company as its Executive Chairman.

## Political career

Ziaur Rahman then President of Bangladesh and Chief Martial Law Administrator offered him a post of an Advisor in the President's Council of Advisors with the rank of a cabinet minister. He was given the Charge of the Ministry of Ports Shipping and IWT. He officially took the charge on 7 November 1977. After the 1978 Bangladeshi presidential election the President's Council of Advisors was dissolved and the Cabinet was formed and Captain Huq sworn in as the Minister the Ministry of Ports Shipping and IWT. He was the member of the Central Committee of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). In 1979 Bangladeshi general election he contested on the nomination of the BNP from Dohar. He won that election. After the Assassination of Ziaur Rahman Abdus Sattar elected as the new president but he was not included in the cabinet of Abdus Sattar. So his tenure as a minister ended on 27 November 1981 but he continued as a Member Of Parliament till 24 March 1982.
Following the 1982 Bangladeshi coup d'état a corruption cases were filed against him along with four former ministers. Following these he moved to London. He stayed there for almost 3 years in political asylum. He worked there as the Volunteer Coordinator and the Racial Master Advisor to the Warden at Toynbee Hall. He came back to Bangladesh on 11 September 1984 after being a fugitive for about 3 years. Following his return he live a retired life.

## Personal life

He married Hasna on 10 January 1964 in Chittagong. The couple had a son and a daughter.

## Books

He wrote a book named High Tide - High Time : Reminiscences of a Naval Commander

## Awards and decorations

| Tamgha-e-Diffa (General Service Medal) Kashmir 1964/65 Clasp | Sitara-e-Harb 1965 War (War Star 1965) | Tamgha-e-Jang 1965 War (War Medal 1965) | Tamgha-e-Jamhuria (Republic Commemoration Medal) 1956 |

## Death

He died on 25 January 2021 at the age of 85 at Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka.