Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul

Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul
Brig. Gen.(Retd)Ilyas Iftekhar Rasul Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of the Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology. He is First Vice Chancellor of BAIUST.

Brig Gen Ilyas was commissioned in Bangladesh Army as an Infantry Officer in 1976 and has gone on retirement on 29 June 2011. He has graduated from University of Dhaka and has obtained Masters of Defence Studies from National University. He has also obtained Masters of Philosophy (M. Phil) from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) on National Security and Strategic Studies. Prior to his retirement, Brig Gen Ilyas was serving as a Senior Directing Staff in the National Defence College, Mirpur. Earlier, he was the pioneer Defence Adviser (DA) in the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, New York (PMBNY).

In his long career in the military, he held a number of important and prestigious command, staff and instructional appointments. It included Commandant, Bangladesh Military Academy (BMA), Commander of an Infantry Brigade in Operations, Director Military Operations (DMO), AHQ, Director (Operations and Planning), Armed Forces Division (AFD), and Colonel Staff of an Infantry Division. He has a long track record of teaching in all important military institutions i.e. National Defence College (NDC, Mirpur), Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC), Bangladesh Military Academy (BMA) and School of Infantry and Tactics (SI&T). He also raised the Research and Development Wing at SI&T in 1988.

Brig Gen Ilyas has extensive experiences in United Nations peacekeeping. He had a tenure in UNOMIG (Georgia) as a Sector Commander and Chief Operations Officer and visited several UN Peacekeeping missions as DMO and DA. As DA, PMBNY, Director, AFD and DMO, AHQ, he had planned and supervised the deployment of Bangladeshi troops in various UN missions. He had co-chaired the COE Reimbursement Meeting 2008 at UN HQ and also worked as a Facilitator and Rapporteur in several UN meetings and dialogues on peacekeeping.

Brig Gen Ilyas has attended several courses both at home and abroad. He is a graduate of DSCSC, Mirpur and Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College (MTAT). He has also attended the National Security and Strategic Studies Course at National Defence College, New Delhi, India. In addition, he has attended two professional courses in the UK and several courses at home. During his professional career, he has attended several seminars and workshops both at home and abroad.

Brig Gen Ilyas is a co-author of a number of military professional pamphlets and books of Bangladesh Armed Forces which includes Infantry Battalion in Battle (IBIB), Division Support Battalion in Battle, Joint Services Staff Duties Manual (Revised) 2003, and History of Counter Insurgency Operations in Chittagong Hill Tracts (1976–1999). He was actively involved in drafting National Defence Policy, War Book, Joint Warfare Doctrine and Forces Goal for Bangladesh Armed Forces. He has several articles in the national dailies on UN Peacekeeping issues. He had been working as an Academic Adviser in the National Defence College, Mirpur since 2008 till joining BAIUST. He has supervised several M. Phil theses and is also an M. Phil examiner under BUP.

He has widely traveled and visited around 25 countries covering Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America. In addition, he led military delegations to China, Vietnam, Jordan and Australia. He has accompanied Delegations visiting China, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Haiti and Ivory Coast as well.

Brig Gen Ilyas and his wife, Bahali Iftekhar are blessed with a daughter and two sons. They all are working in different professions.