Syed Muazzem Ali

Ali was born on 18 July 1944 in Sylhet, Assam Province in British India.[4] He completed his master's from the University of Dhaka. He joined the Pakistan Civil Service and was trained at the Civil Service Academy in Lahore. From 1973 to 1974 he studied at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.[5]

Ali was serving in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C. when Bangladesh Liberation war started, and he defected to the Bangladeshi government in exile. He helped found the Bangladeshi embassy to the United States. He helped funnel resources from the United States and the United Nations to the reconstruction of Bangladesh. From 1975 to 1978, he served in the Bangladeshi embassy in Poland. He worked in the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1982-1986 and for the Bangladeshi High Commissioner in India from 1986-1988.[5][6][7]

Ali was the consul in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. He would go on to serve as Bangladesh Ambassador to Bhutan, Iran, Lebanon, Turkmenistan, France, Syria, and Portugal. Ali was Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the UNESCO, where (in cooperation with Tony Huq, former Permanent Representative to UNESCO and then UNESCO Special Adviser), he helped establish the International Mother Language Day on 21 February through the introduction of the draft resolution, the Language movement day. He then served as the foreign secretary of Bangladesh, where he worked to facilitate duty free for exports of least developed country to Europe.[5][8] In 2014, he was appointed High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India.[9]

Ali's older brother Syed Mohammad Ali was the founding editor of The Daily Star.[5] His youngest uncle Syed Mujtaba Ali was a writer.[4]

Ali died on 30 December 2019 at the age of 75 at Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka.[4][10]