'Nothing secret about it': Bangladesh Jamaat chief denies ‘secret meetings’ with Indian diplomats

File photo of Shafiqur Rahman, a leader of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman denied reports of “secret meetings” with Indian diplomats, saying the meetings were not covert but kept private at the diplomats’ request. He criticized media coverage and stressed Jamaat’s balanced foreign policy.

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Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman has pushed back strongly against reports claiming he held “secret meetings” with Indian diplomats, insisting that the interaction was neither covert nor improper and accusing sections of the Bangladeshi media of twisting facts.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Rahman clarified that he met two Indian diplomats around the middle of last year after returning home from medical treatment. While the meetings were not made public at the time, he said this was done at the request of the diplomats and did not make the interaction secret.

“We told them that meetings with diplomats are usually made public and that we wanted to do the same in this case. They requested that it not be publicised. We agreed. There is nothing secret about it,” Rahman wrote in Bengali.

His statement followed a Reuters report, published a day earlier, which mentioned the meetings in the context of Jamaat’s evolving political posture ahead of Bangladesh’s February 12 general election. The Reuters report said Rahman had acknowledged meeting Indian diplomats and that the party was open to joining a consensus government.

There has been no official confirmation from India regarding the meetings, and the identities of the diplomats remain undisclosed.

According to Reuters, the interview with Rahman took place at his residence shortly after Jamaat-e-Islami finalised an alliance with the youth-led National Citizen Party. The report said an Indian diplomat met Rahman earlier in 2025 following his bypass surgery and requested that the interaction remain confidential.

Rahman later explained that the issue arose after the Reuters journalist asked whether he had interacted with officials from neighbouring India. He said he responded by mentioning visits from diplomats of several countries after his return from treatment, including two from India.

Unlike diplomats from other countries whose courtesy calls were made public, Rahman said the Indian diplomat specifically asked for confidentiality. He questioned the rationale behind that request.

“Why? There are so many diplomats who visited me and it was made public. Where is the problem? So we must become open to all and open to each other. There is no alternative to develop our relationship,” he said.

Expressing anger over how the episode was portrayed, Rahman added, “Some of our local media have reported that secret meetings took place between the Jamaat Ameer and India. I strongly condemn such reports.”

Hasina’s presence in India and strained ties

In the Reuters interview, Rahman also pointed to the continued stay of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in India as a complicating factor in bilateral relations. He said ties between India and Bangladesh have fallen to their lowest point in decades since Hasina was ousted from power following mass protests.

India had maintained close political, economic, and strategic ties with Hasina during her long tenure.

Asked about Jamaat’s historical closeness to Pakistan, Rahman said the party does not seek alignment with any single country. “We are never interested in leaning toward any one country. Rather, we respect all and want balanced relations among nations,” he said.

Jamaat gaining ground ahead of polls

Rahman’s remarks come as Jamaat-e-Islami shows signs of a political resurgence. A recent opinion poll placed the party just four percentage points behind the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, marking a dramatic turnaround for a group that was banned during Hasina’s rule and later revived under the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus.

The BNP and Jamaat previously governed Bangladesh together between 2001 and 2006 under Khaleda Zia. The alliance lost power in 2008, after which the Awami League returned to office and ruled until Hasina’s ouster in 2024.

For India, the prospect of Jamaat playing a central role in the next government carries serious strategic implications. The party has long been viewed as sympathetic to Pakistan, and several of its senior leaders were later executed after being convicted for atrocities committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

New Delhi also recalls the BNP-Jamaat period as one marked by acute security concerns, when extremist groups and anti-India terror outfits used Bangladeshi territory to plan and launch attacks against India.

While India is expected to engage with whichever party forms the next government in Dhaka, Jamaat’s growing political relevance signals a far more complex and challenging phase for India-Bangladesh relations.