Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury (Bengali: সালাউদ্দিন কাদের চৌধুরী; (13 March 1949 – 22 November 2015) was a Bangladeshi politician and minister, a six-term member of the Jatiya Sangsad, and a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Standing Committee. He served as a minister in two ministries under the Ershad ministry, and later served as the Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006. He was the son of late Convention Muslim League leader A.K.M. Fazlul Quader Chowdhury.
On 1 October 2013, he was convicted of 9 of 23 charges and sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh for crimes during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence. However, limitations placed on his defense testimony were called "disturbing" by some observers. He was executed by hanging in Old Dhaka Central Jail on 22 November 2015.
Chowdhury was born on 13 March 1949 in Gahira village. He was from a political family of Raozan Upazila in erstwhile East Pakistan. His father, Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, was a Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly and Acting President of Pakistan from time to time before the independence of Bangladesh. He was the eldest among the six siblings. He received his education from the boarding school, Sadiq Public School at Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Chowdhury was a member of the Bangladesh Parliament and of the standing committee of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Chowdhury was a seven-term Member of Parliament, generally representing Rangunia and/or Boalkhali Upazilas, starting with constituency Chittagong-7 in 1979. He was elected for Chittagong-6 in 1986 and 1991. He was elected for Chittagong-7 again in 1996, and re-elected in 2001. He ran a failed campaign to be elected secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference. Opposition member of parliament, Shuranjit Sengupta, demanded the resignation of M Morshed Khan over the failed bid and in response Chowdhury said, "He should at first be circumcised before commenting on an Islamic organisation like the OIC. If he does that I will support his demand for the foreign minister's resignation,". Chowdhury's final term, to which he was elected in 2008, was for Chittagong-2.
Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, who was executed for 1971 war crimes, has expressed hope that he can prove his father's "innocence" and expose what he calls a "judicial killing".
The family of executed BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury will send a legal notice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, seeking evidence to support their claim that he was subjected to a ‘judicial killing’ by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
Chowdhury was arrested 2011 from his "safe house" in Dhanmondi and questioned by the special branch of police, where he was reportedly tortured. The trial for his involvement in the 1971 Bangladesh genocide were due to begin in August 2011.
Among the charges submitted against Chowdhury in the International Crimes Tribunal were:
Abduction of 7 Hindus and killing 6 of them on 4–5 April 1971 in Matilal House.
Accompanying Pakistan army at the time of killing Maddhya Gohira Hindu Parha in Raozan on 13 April 1971.
Kundeshwari, Killing of Nutan Chandra on April 13
Jagatmalla Para Mass Killings on April 13
Sultanpur Mass Killing on April 13
Unosottor Para Mass Killing on April 13
Raozan Municipality Killing (Satish Chandra) on April 14
Mozaffar Ahmed (with son) ACTM (abduction confinement torture and murder) on April 17
Murder, loot, rape at Manik Dhar’s house After April 13