M. A. G. Osmani

Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani (মুহাম্মদ আতাউল গণি ওসমানী; 1 September 1918 – 16 February 1984), was a Bengali military leader.

Osmani was born into a Bengali Muslim landowning family in Sunamganj, Sylhet, Assam Province, British India, on 1 September 1918.

Osmani attended Cotton School in Sylhet, matriculating at Sylhet Government Pilot High School in 1934.

He studied English and Persian.

He won the Pritoria Prize for excellence in English.

Osmani studied geography at Aligarh Muslim University, and graduated in 1938.

He enrolled as a cadet at the Indian Military Academy the following year.

Osmani's career spanned five decades, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in 1939.

He fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II.

When he joined the British Indian Army, Osmani was a member of the 4th Urban Infantry (Indian Territorial Force unit) from 1939 to 1940 while he was a university student.

On 5 October 1940, he received a regular commission as a second lieutenant in the British Indian Army's Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC).

Osmani was initially attached to the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington Regiment, which was tasked with a New Delhi depot.

After he completed the Short Mechanical Transport Course (November 1940 - February 1941) and Junior Tactical Course (February - April 1941), he was attached to a mechanical transport battalion of the XV Corps and posted to Burma during World War II.

Osmani was promoted to the ranks of war-substantive lieutenant and temporary captain on 17 February 1941.

Between 1941 and 1945, he held the posts of platoon commander, battalion adjutant, company 2IC and battalion commander.

He received a battlefield promotion to acting major on 23 February 1942, with further promotions to war-substantive captain (temporary major) on 23 May.

From November 1944 to February 1945, Osmani was a grade-two general staff officer at his formation headquarters, completing the Senior Officers Course after the war.

He was attached to British Indian Army HQ Bihar and Orissa Area from May to July 1946.

On 13 July 1946, Osmani was granted a regular commission in the British Indian Army, with a promotion to substantive captain on 5 October 1946.

After the partition of India in 1947, he joined the Pakistan Army and served in the East Bengal Regiment, retiring as a colonel in 1967.

He subsequently completed the Senior Officers Course in February 1947, and was promoted to local lieutenant colonel.

He was posted to British Indian Army GHQ in Simla in the Quartermaster General and Ordnance Branches until August 1947.

From August to 6 October 1947 he served as GSO-2 at the HQ of Claude Auchinleck in New Delhi.

Although Osmani had passed the Indian Civil Service examination, he declined a foreign-service position in 1947 to remain with the Pakistan Army.

He witnessed the end of the British Indian Army, representing Pakistan during the division of army assets between India and Pakistan.

After the 1947 birth of India and Pakistan in 1947, Osmani joined the Pakistan Army on 7 October 1947.

He was promoted to acting lieutenant colonel on 7 January 1948.

He was assigned to general-staff headquarters as GSO-1, Coordination, Planning and Personnel.

After completing the course, Osmani joined the staff of army chief of staff Reginald Hutton in January 1949 and (as chair of a committee tasked by Douglas Gracey to evaluate army enlistment standards) recommended the establishment of cadet colleges in East Pakistan.

He later became an assistant adjutant general.

Osmani joined the Provisional Government of Bangladesh in 1971 as the commander-in-chief of the nascent Bangladesh Forces.

Osmani attended the Long Term Staff Course at the Command and Staff College, Quetta, Pakistan and served with Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan and A. A. K. Niazi, all of whom led the Pakistan Army against his Bangladesh forces in 1971.

Regarded as the founder of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Osmani retired as a four-star general from the Bangladesh Army in 1972.

Osmani entered politics in independent Bangladesh, serving as a Member of Parliament and cabinet minister in the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Along with Mainul Hosein, he resigned from parliament in opposition to the creation of the one party state of BAKSAL.

He advised the government on restoring the chain of command in the military after the 15 August coup.

He contested the 1978 Bangladeshi presidential election against Ziaur Rahman.

Osmani died in London in 1984 and was buried in his hometown Sylhet.

He was a descendant of Shah Nizamuddin Osmani, a 14th-century associate of Shah Jalal.

His ancestral village is in Dayamir Union within Osmani Nagar Upazila of Sylhet District.