1981 in Bangladesh

Incumbents

• President: Ziaur Rahman, Abdus Sattar
• Prime Minister: Shah Azizur Rahman
• Chief Justice: Kemaluddin Hossain

  Demography

Climate

Economy

Events

• 17 May - Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned from India after more than five years exile that began after his assassination. More than one million of her supporters turned out to welcome her return, and she urged the nation to work toward restoring democracy.
• 30 May - Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh, was assassinated as he spent the night in Chittagong. Taking place at 4:00 am local time, the attack was planned by Major General Muhammed Manzur. Lt. Col. Motiur Rahman shot and killed the pajama-clad President Ziaur.
• 15 November - Abdus Sattar was confirmed as President of Bangladesh in an election suspected of being rigged. Running on the Nationalist Party ticket as one of 23 candidates, Sattar, who had been the acting President since the May 30 assassination of Ziaur Rahman, officially received 14,217,601 votes, nearly two-thirds of those cast, while runner up Kamal Hossain of the Awami League got 5,694,884.

  Sports

• Domestic football:
• * Abahani KC won Dhaka League title.
• * Mohammedan SC won the title of Bangladesh Federation Cup.
• Cricket:
• * Marylebone Cricket Club cricket team visited Bangladesh and played a number of friendly matches with the Bangladesh team.

  Births

• Enamul Hossain, chess grandmaster

  Deaths

• 30 May: President Ziaur Rahman, Bir Uttam
• 24 June: Abdul Matin Chowdhury, academician
• 2 August: Syed A. B. Mahmud Hossain, jurist
• 7 August: Mahbubul Alam, author
• 9 October: Qazi Motahar Hossain, author