WASHINGTON, Aug. 15—Khondakar Mushtaque Ahmed, the new President of Bangladesh, is a professional politician who spent many years in jail during his nation's long struggle for independence. Diplomats in Washington who knew of him said, however, that he could not have been the leader of the coup against Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the controversial founder and leader of Bangladesh.

The diplomats view Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed—a slight man who was considered a close friend and associate of Sheik Mujib—only as having been installed by the armed forces as head of government for the time being.

The 56‐year‐old Bengali was described by many of the diplomats as “not a strong personality,” or as just another gray Awami League politician forever obscured by the charismatic personality of Sheik Mujib.

At the time of the coup, he was Minister for Foreign Trade and Commerce and vice president of the Awami League, the only political party that Sheik Mujib allowed to function openly.

No one could have held these posts without being on good terms with Sheik Mujib.

But behind all struggles for power among friends there is usually a story, and diplomats here tell several.

A Demotion in 1971

In 1971, during the agitation over self‐determination for East Pakistan and with Sheik Mujib in jail, Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed was foreign minister of the provisional government of Bangladesh. Upon independence in December, 1971, Sheik Mujib became Prime Minister and shifted him to the lesser post of Minister of Irrigation and Floods.

Diplomats offered two explanations of this. One was that Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed participated in an 11th‐hour effort by Washington to prevent by diplomacy the split between East and West Pakistan. His participation in this effort was confirmed by Administration officials, but they did not know that this was the reason for his demotion.

A second explanation is that though Sheik Mujib held no ill feeling toward his friend, he had promised the prestigious portfolios in his new Government to leftist pro‐Indian members of the Awami League.

Publicly there was no sign of a rift between these friends of 25 years, but privately, several diplomats said, they had heard Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed complain about his treatment. This grudge, they Said, was nurtured in the ensuing years and fed by Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed's view that the Government was corrupt and mismanaged.

Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed was born in the small town of Comilla in 1918 and was educated and received a law degree from Dacca University.

He entered politics as a young follower of Mohandas K. Ghandi's 1942 “Quit India” movement against Britain, the beginning of the drive that ultimately forced Britain to leave the subcontinent, including what has become the nations of India, Pakistan and finally Bangladesh. He was jailed by the British in 1946.

He was one of the four founders in 1949 of the Awami League, which helped lead Pakistan to independence. Five years later he was elected to the East Pakistan legislative assembly after being jailed for a short period in 1952 by the Pakistani Government. In 1958, when martial law was declared, he was arrested again and imprisoned until 1961.

With the revival of politics in Pakistan in 1964, he joined Sheik Mujib in reorganizing the Awami League. As the movement gained momentum, Mr. Ahmed and Sheik Mujib were arrested again in 1966. They were cell mates until 1968.

He remained in exile in India during the 1971 civil war in East Pakistan, returning to Bangladesh after independence.

Mr. Mushtaque Ahmed is generally considered to be pro‐Western and pro‐America and opposed to Sheik Mujib's drift toward the Soviet Union and India. Coming from a middle‐class background, he is said to favor a free‐market economy and to have opposed Sheik Mujib's inclination for Indian‐style state planning of the economy.

He is said to have become popular with the population through his firm handling of issues with India. As Irrigation Minister in 1973 he took an uncompromising stand over sharing Ganges water with India.