Mohammad Mainul Islam (general)

Mainul instructed at East Bengal Regimental Centre, School of Infantry and Tactics and was the chief instructor of Armed Forces War College. He commanded one infantry company, one infantry battalion and the 46th Independent Infantry Brigade. He was appointed as director general of Bangladesh Rifles and rechristened it to Border Guard Bangladesh on 4 May 2010.

Mainul then returned to National Defence College as college secretary. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 2013 and was made chief of general Staff at the Army Headquarters. In July 2015, he was made the principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division. He was a part of modernization of the Bangladesh Armed Forces as part of Forces Goal 2030 scheme.^[5] Mainul went to leave per retirement in February 2016.^[6][4]

He was hand picked as brigadier general to manage the catastrophic situation of the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles Mutiny. He served as the director general of the Bangladesh Rifles from 28 February 2009 to 9 May 2010 and was given the responsibility of reorganizing the mutiny devastated force. He had replaced Director General Shakil Ahmed who was killed in the mutiny.^[7] He re-established the chain of command in the force and initiated the trial of the mutiny in a very short time. He transformed working environment of the traditional border force with new laws and positive culture.^[4] He oversaw the change in name of Bangladesh Rifles to Border Guards Bangladesh. During his directorship, the uniform was changed and an intelligence unit was added to the border forces.^[8] He produced a new organisational structure upon which the force operates today.^[9]

After forced withdrawal of Bangladesh Battalion Headquarters from UN camps in Ivory Coast, Bangladeshi peacekeepers faced image crisis; by negative branding like "armed tourists" in the mission area. He was assigned to bring change in ways of professional peace keeping duty. He could turn the tide in favor of Bangladeshi peace keepers.^[9] He was also a proud member of 1st milestone group of 15 Peace Keepers deployed under United Nations Iran–Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIMOG) to Iraq in 1988, immediately after Iraq-Iran War. This group paved the way of present-day peace keeping.^[4]