Chowdhury was the general secretary of the Chittagong city unit of
Chhatra League. He was leader of
Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad, and organised a strike in Chittagong on 1 March 1971. After the
7 March 1971 speech by
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Chowdhury and other student activists acquired firearms from the Rifles Club and an arms depot in Majhirghat. He was arrested by the Pakistan Army soon but was released after he pretended to be insane in prison. He moved to India to train for the
Mukti Bahini and was appointed a commander in the East Mount Battalion after his training. After the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he formed a
Mujib Bahini unit to resist the
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad government. He was arrested by the government. He fled to India on being released. He became the president of the Chittagong city Awami League in 2006. He served as mayor for 17 years until defeated by
Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate Manjurul Alam in 2010. Chowdhury was the first mayor in Bangladesh to establish a private university –
Premier University, Chittagong, which was hosted at the premises of Chittagong City Corporation. After he took office, the corporation established nine postsecondary colleges, computer-training centres, a midwife training centre, a healthcare-technology training centre (the first in Bangladesh to train in the operation of health care technology including
radiology and
radiography) and eight night colleges to expand
adult literacy. The Chittagong city authority also manages eight Hindu religious education centers (known as Sanskrit Toll) to provide religious education in
Sanskrit to minority students.
Arrest in 2007 After the army-backed government assumed power in Bangladesh in January 2007,
Mohiuddin and other politicians in the country were arrested in an overnight raid on 7 March. He was incarcerated (mostly incommunicado) in various prisons in the country. When first arrested, unlike other arrested leaders he was taken to a remote jail in
Bandarban (a district of
Chittagong Hill Tracts). Whilst in prison, Chowdhury's daughter was diagnosed with blood cancer in Thailand. He was detained without trial for 21 months, the government did not release him from prison to see his dying daughter. He was finally released from prison on 8 October 2008 following a High Court order. Despite his release, the army-backed government retained his passport and did not allow him to fly to Thailand in time to see his daughter. On 17 October, when the government finally permitted him to fly abroad and just minutes before he boarded the aircraft en route to Bangkok, Chowdhury's daughter died. == Death ==