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Muhammad Mansur Ali was a Bangladeshi politician and economist who was a close confidante of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh. Mansur was a senior leader of the Awami League; Mansur also served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in 1975 and known as one of founding fathers of Bangladesh.

Muhammad Mansur Ali was born at 5 June 1919 in the village of Kuripara, in the Sirajgonj Sadr Thana of Sirajganj District. Mansur pursued his education in Kolkata, graduating from the Islamia College (now Maulana Azad College). He would pursue a M.A. degree in economics and law from the Aligarh Muslim University, the premier Islamic institution in India. During this period Mansur became an active member of the Muslim League, which under Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. A student leader, Mansur worked actively for the League throughout Bengal. He served as the vice-president of the Pabna District Muslim League from 1946 to 1950. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Mansur settled in what became East Pakistan. He would join the Pakistan Army, receive training at Jessore Cantonment and attain the rank of army captain. Deciding to practice law, he enrolled in the Pabna District Court in 1951.

He married Begum Amina the daughter of a District Judge from the area of Rangpur. They had five sons and one daughter.

Rising to public prominence, Mansur was widely known as "Capt. Mansur." He left the Muslim League to join the newly formed Awami Muslim League of A. K. Fazlul Huq and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. He would soon be elected member of the party's central executive committee and president of its Pabna District unit. Mansur was arrested by police in 1952 for helping to organize protests against the declaration of Urdu as the sole official language, in what became known as the Language Movement. Mansur and his party demanded that Bengali also receive recognition and the provinces be granted autonomy. After his release, Mansur was elected a member of the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly in 1954 as a candidate of the United Front alliance of various political parties. In the cabinet headed by Ataur Rahman Khan, Mansur served in different periods as the province's minister of law, parliamentary affairs, food, agriculture, commerce and industry. Mansur was re-arrested in the aftermath of the coup d'etat led by Ayub Khan, who became President of Pakistan and imposed martial law. He would remain incarcerated from 1958 to 1959.

Mansur Ali played an important role in the Six point movement led by the Awami League politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who demanded substantial regional autonomy and opposed the military regime. Mansur was a key party organizer in the period when Mujib was arrested by the army. In the 1970 elections, he was elected a senior member of the legislative assembly. At the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Mansur went underground to organize a government in exile. Declaring the independence of Bangladesh, Mansur became the minister of finance in the Mujibnagar government. In this period, Mansur helped organize the guerrilla movement led by the Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army) and provide political leadership in the absence of Mujib, who had been arrested by Pakistani forces.

On August 15, 1975, Mujib was assassinated along with his family by a group of military officers. It is believed that the plot was masterminded by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, a disgruntled member of Mujib's regime who would become president. Mansur went into hiding immediately after the killing. When Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad invited Mujib loyalists such as Mansur Ali, Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman and Tajuddin Ahmad to join his government, the trio refused. They were arrested by the army on August 23, 1975. Refusing to support Khondaker's regime, they were murdered while incarcerated in the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3.