Bangladesh names Lt Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman as new Army chief

DHAKA, Jun 11 : Lieutenant General Waker-Uz-Zaman was on Tuesday named Bangladesh’s next Army chief for a three-year term and will assume charge on June 23, the Defence Ministry said.

Lt Gen Zaman, 58, would concurrently be upgraded to the rank of a four-star general on the day he assumed charge.

“Lieutenant General Waker-Uz-Zaman has been appointed as the Army Chief with promotion as (four-star) General . . . For three years from the afternoon of June 23,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

He would succeed General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed after the end of the latter’s three-year tenure.

Commissioned as an Infantry Corps officer in 1985, Zaman is now the Bangladesh Army’s incumbent Chief of General Staff (CGS).

Under his position as the CGS, Zaman will oversee military operations, military intelligence, United Nations peacekeeping affairs, and budget, alongside other military-related issues.

During his more than three and a half decades of illustrious career, Zaman has an enormous experience in holding key command, staff and instructional appointments, according to the Defence Ministry’s Inter Service Public Relations Department (ISPR).

He commanded an infantry battalion, the only independent infantry brigade of the Bangladesh Army, and an infantry division.

As head of the Armed Forces Division, he was directly involved with UN Peacekeeping Affairs of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. He was also nominated as a Gender Champion and Gender Advocate of Bangladesh for UN Peacekeeping Affairs.

By his appointment as principal staff officer, he also headed the Bangladesh National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention as chairman.

His key staff appointments include staff officer at an infantry brigade, School of Infantry and Tactics and Army headquarters while he was an instructor at the School of Infantry and Tactics, Non-commissioned Officers’ Academy and Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operations Training.

He is an alumnus of the Bangladesh Defence Services Command and Staff College and Joint Services Command and Staff College of the United Kingdom. (PTI)