fateh was born in kishoreganj on 16 may 1924 in a landowning family, to abdul gafur and his second wife zohra khatun. fateh was a middle child, in a large family of a dozen children who survived to adulthood, while two other siblings died young. his father abdul gafur had attended presidency college, calcutta, and was one of the first muslim "daroga" (sheriffs) in the british raj. fateh's mother zohra was the daughter of a local nobleman. fateh passed his matriculation exams from "ramkrishna" high english school in kishorganj in 1941. after passing his intermediate exams from ananda mohan college in mymensingh in 1943, he undertook higher studies in english literature at dhaka university (ba honours in 1946 and ma in 1947) where he also excelled in sport, for a time captaining the cricket team and becoming the table tennis champion.