Bangladesh’s ruling party attempts to revive ties with Islamists

New Delhi: Less than one month after forming the government Bangladesh’s ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is under the scanner for its alleged outreach to the Islamists, reviving memories of the previous BNP rule between 2001-06.

Senior party leaders recently held meetings with Islamists jailed under the previous Sheikh Hasina government, it has been learnt. Several of them were released by the interim regime after the ouster of Hasina.

Religious affairs minister Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad is allegedly playing a role in building new links between the BNP leadership and influential Islamists, bringing back memories of 2001-06 BNP rule when Islamists were patronised with the backing of Pakistan to the detriment of India, ET has learnt.


Kaikobad was sentenced to life imprisonment for his alleged role in the 2004 grenade attack on Hasina and later went into exile.

The 2001-06 BNP rule in Dhaka marked a rise in extremism and radical groups with support from the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government.

Historically, Jamaat-e-Islami has acted against New Delhi’s security interests, encouraging extremist groups, radicals, and insurgents in Northeast India. During the entire 2001-06 period when Jamaat-e-Islami was in power in coalition with BNP, they worked in close coordination with Pakistan Army and ISI to encourage cross-border terror attacks into India’s heartland.

The Jamaat-e-Islami was directly involved in the 2004 case of ten truckloads of arms being attempted to be smuggled into Bangladesh for rebels in India’s Northeast and extremists on Bangladesh soil. Certain ministers of the 2001-06 BNP government allegedly maintained ties with terror groups responsible for attacks in India in the decade of 2000.