[5] Ahmed was born on 24 October 1929 to a Bengali Muslim family in Lalmonirhat (then under Kurigram), Rangpur district, Bengal Province.
His father, Dalaluddin Ahmed, was a renowned wakil of Kurigram, and his mother's name was Rahimah Begum.
He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calcutta in 1945, and became associated with politics whilst enrolling for law.
[citation needed] Riaz Uddin Ahmed was a lawyer and organiser of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
[1] He joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and was elected as a member of parliament from the then Rangpur-15 constituency as a candidate of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the second parliamentary elections of 1979.