Azizul Haque (police officer)

Azizul Haque
Born	c. 1872 Paigramkasba village, Fultala, Khulna division, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	1935 (aged 62–63)

Azizul Haque (also Azizul Hacque, Khan Bahadur Qazi Azizul Huq, Quazi Syed Azizul Haque 1872–1935) was a police officer of British India who worked with Edward Henry to develop the Henry Classification System of fingerprints. Haque, reportedly, provided the mathematical basis for the system. Haque was born in 1872 in the village of Paigramkasba, Fultala Phultala, in the Khulna division of Bengal, now Bangladesh. His parents reportedly died in a boat accident when he was young. According to family history, Haque left his family home at age 12, as a result of "altercation" with his older brother, and went to Kolkata, where he befriended a family who became "impressed" with his mathematical skills and arranged for him to get a formal education. According to Beavan, Henry recruited Haque as a police sub-inspector to work on the fingerprint project at the recommendation of the Principal of Calcutta Presidency College, where Haque studied math and science, and thus Haque began his career in Bengal Police Service. Once professionally established, Haque visited his brother from whom he was estranged as a run-away boy, and as the family story goes, the brother was over joyed and promptly arranged Haque to marry his cousin (which was an accepted custom among Muslims in the Indian subcontinent). Haque subsequently opted to join the Bihar Police Service when Bihar was separated from the Bengal Presidency. Upon retirement from service, he settled in Motihari in Bihar province of India, where he died and was buried there. He had eight surviving children. His wife, and the children and their families migrated to East Pakistan and West Pakistan during the independence of Pakistan in 1947, and presently their descendants are settled in Bangladesh, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Australia and North America.

Haque was recruited by Edward Henry to work on the fingerprint project as part of the Calcutta Police service of British India. According to Colin Beavan (p 131), "Haque studied math and science at Presidency College, Kolkata. In 1892, Edward Henry wrote to the college principal asking for the recommendation of a strong statistics student, and the principal nominated Haque. Henry recruited Haque as a police sub-inspector, and initially gave him the responsibility for instituting the anthropometric system in Bengal."

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