Chittagong District Bar Association

On 23 March 1893, 17 lawyers established the Chittagong District Bar Association.^[1] It is housed inside the historic Chittagong Court Building.^[1][2]

The Chittagong District Bar Association decided to close the Chittagong District Court on hartal (strike) days in 1989, making it the only district court in the country to do so.^[3][4] In 2005, the Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad, backed by Awami League, won the bar election.^[5]

In May 2016, the president of the association, Md. Mujibul Haque, wrote to the Ministry of Law requesting additional judges for the Chittagong District Court.^[6] The Ainjibi Oikya Parishad, backed by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jammat e Islami, won the most seats in the 2016 bar election.^[7] Sammilita Ainjibi Shamannay Parishad, backed by the Awami League, received the second-highest number of seats, followed by the Samomana Ainjibi Sangsad, backed by left-wing political parties.^[7]

It signed an agreement for receiving membership dues with Sonali Bank Limited.^[8] The Awami League supported Sammilita Ainjibi Shamannay Parishad won the 2022 association election led by Abu Mohammad Hashem.^[9]

Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government, the general secretary of the association, Ashraf Hossain Chowdhury, was appointed public prosecutor of the Chittagong District.^[10] He got into an argument with a judge he pleaded for the judge to accept a case by Showaibul Islam, who was injured in protests against the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.^[10] The judge had asked the plaintiff to name 126 accused, almost all of whom were unnamed, in the case, which Chowdhury argued was impossible.^[10]

After the Murder of Saiful Islam Alif, a member of the association, at the bail hearing of Bangladeshi Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, the association demanded the arrest of all accused in the murder, including 70 lawyers.^[11] The association closed the court, protesting the murder.^[12][13] It established an inquiry committee into the murder.^[14] In April 2025, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami-backed lawyers divided up the executive body of the association without holding an election.^[15] Pro-Awami league lawyers were not allowed to participate in the election process.^[15]