Benazir Ahmed

Benazir Ahmed was born in Gopalganj and studied English Literature at University of Dhaka and earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from an American university.[6]

Ahmed joined Bangladesh Police Service as Assistant Superintendent of Police in 1988. He served in various appointments all along with his career. He has also received many professional pieces of training from home and abroad. He was deprived of promotion allegedly during the government of Bangladesh Nationalist Party as part of discrimination against police officers from Gopalganj and police officers from minority religions.[7] He was the Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.[8] He criticized Transparency International Bangladesh report on Bangladesh police which he described as criticizing the Police "cruelly" and "unjustly" in 2013.[9] He was made the Inspector General of Bangladesh Police in April 2020.[10]

In 2022, social media reports in Bangladesh indicated that Ahmed was to visit Germany to purchase 100, 000 bedsheets.[11] The trip was cancelled after an uproar. Bangladesh Police responded that these reports were "untrue and misleading," and were a result of "linguistic confusion."[11][12]

On 10 December 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added Ahmed to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.[13][4] Individuals on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.[14]

Ahmed denied all allegations and expressed his shock on being sanctioned. He blamed the sanctions on "propaganda" and "anti state forces." He also accused human rights organisations of misleading US politicians, specifically referring to one unnamed group whose "South Asia director" was "a Pakistani."[5]