Full Name: Enayetullah Khan Mintu

Affiliation: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)

Current Position: Deceased

Date of Birth: May 25, 1939

Date of Death: November 10, 2005

Place of Birth: Bangladesh

Home District: Mymensingh

Nationality: Bangladeshi

Profile:

Enayetullah Khan (25 May 1939 - 10 November 2005) was a prominent journalist and former minister of Bangladesh. He was the founder of the English weekly Holiday and the daily New Age. He served as minister from 1977 to 1978. Besides, he served as the ambassador of Bangladesh in some countries. He was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 2004 for his significant contribution to journalism.

Khan was born in Mymensingh district. He was the third son of the late Justice Abdul Jabbar Khan, a former speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly. His siblings are journalist Sadek Khan, poet Abu Zafar Obaidullah, politician Rashed Khan Menon and former cultural minister of BNP government Begum Selima Rahman, publisher of English daily New Age Shahidullah Khan Badal.

Khan was a student of Anand Mohan College. He then joined the University of Dhaka, completed his graduation and obtained a Master's degree in philosophy in 1958. Khan was also a noted student activist. He held leadership positions as the general secretary of Ananda Mohan College Students’ Union in Mymensingh, a member of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union from 1958 to 1959, and the vice-president of the students’ union of Dhaka University’s then-Dhaka Hall, later renamed Shahidullah Hall, from 1959 to 1960.

Khan begun his career as a reporter with the then-Pakistan Observer in 1959, he went to found the weekly Holiday in August 1965 and took over as the editor of the weekly in 1966. He was also the editor of the Bangladesh Times from 1975 to 1977.

Khan served as the minister for petroleum and mineral resources in the then-government of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1978 and as the ambassador to China, North Korea, Cambodia and Myanmar from 1984 to 1989.

Known for his democratic activism, Khan was also at the forefront of the Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee (Buddhjeevi Nidhan Information-Research Committee), formed on December 18, 1971 to investigate the murders of intellectuals by the Al-Badr and the Al-Shams — the killer gangs of the then-Jamaat-e-Islami — in the final days of the War of Independence in 1971.

In 1974, Khan was one of the organisers of the Civil Liberties and Legal Aid Committee, which was formed to defend the political victims of the then-Rakkhi Bahini, and the Famine Resistance Committee.

Khan was also on the Farakka March Committee led by Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani in 1976 and the Committee against Communalism in 1981.

Khan was the president of the National Press Club from 1973 to 1976 and the Dhaka Club from 1984 to 1985.

On November 10, 2005, Enayetullah Khan died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 66.

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