Mahbub Ali Khan (; 3 November 1934 – 6 August 1984) was a Bangladesh Navy rear admiral and the Chief of Naval Staff from 1979 till his death in 1984. He is known for his heroic actions done for his country. Under him the South Talpatti sandbar and other emerging islands in the Bay of Bengal, over which both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty, remained under the authority of Bangladesh. He is also known for bringing down the pirates in the Bay of Bengal and was responsible for maintaining the security of the Bay and the Sundarbans. Early life and family Khan was born into a wealthy Bengali Muslim zamindar family on 3 November 1934 in Jalalpur, Sylhet District (present-day Bangladesh) located in the British Raj's Assam Province. He was the youngest child among the three children of Ahmed Ali Khan and Jubaida Khatun. Khatun was the daughter of Khan Bahadur Wasiuddin Ahmad. In 1901, Ahmad Ali Khan became the first Muslim barrister in Sylhet. Ahmad Ali Khan was also the President of the Assam Congress and represented the All-India Muslim League party as a member of the Legislative Assembly. Mahbub Ali Khan's grandfather, Khan Bahadur Dr. Asaddar Ali Khan (1850-1937), Sylhet's first Muslim civil surgeon and the son-in-law of Syed Ameer Ali. A graduate of the Aliah University, Asaddar Ali Khan was also the personal physician to the Bihari Shia lawyer-politician Syed Hasan Imam, the top barrister of Calcutta High Court and leader of the Indian National Congress. M.A. Khan's grand-uncle Ghazanfar Ali Khan OBE ICS was the first Muslim Cambridge graduate from Assam and Bengal. Mahbub was also the cousin of General M. A. G. Osmani, the Supreme Commander of Bangladesh Forces during the Bangladesh Liberation War, and Ajmal Ali Choudhury, a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Khan spent his childhood in the Sylhet District and Kolkata. After the independence of Pakistan, his family moved to Dhaka in East Pakistan. He received his primary education in Kolkata and Dhaka and has spent his college time in Dhaka College. Later he took a law degree. Khan's niece is the Harvard-educated Irene Khan, former head of Amnesty International. Career In 1952 Khan joined the executive branch of the Pakistan Navy as a cadet. Khan received his training as a cadet in a military school in Quetta of West Pakistan. For higher training he went to finish his graduation