Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami, has strongly criticised President Mohammed Shahabuddin, just days after the President spoke about the treatment he allegedly faced under Muhammad Yunus’s interim administration following Sheikh Hasina’s removal from power in 2024.
The Jamaat chief, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Bangladeshi Parliament, accused the President of withholding key facts about the events of August 5, 2024, the day Hasina tendered her resignation and was forced to flee the Muslim-majority nation.
What did Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman say?
In a post on his Facebook account, Rahman wrote, “The President has suppressed many things regarding August 5, 2024. He did not acknowledge in his current statement what he told the leaders present regarding the resignation of the fallen and fugitive Prime Minister and what he later told the nation”.
“And he did not say anything that day that he is saying now”, he added.
“Will the President reconcile what crores of people heard and what he said that day and what he is saying now?”
“The nation is not stupid. Such behavior from the highest position of the state is unacceptable,” he added.
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Why criticism for Bangladesh’s president?
Rahman’s criticism of the President came days after Shahabuddin accused the former chief adviser, Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, of “conspiring” to remove him from office in an unconstitutional manner.
Shahabuddin claimed that during Yunus’s tenure, attempts were made to destabilise Bangladesh and create a constitutional vacuum.
By criticising the President, the Jamaat chief inadvertently drew attention to what critics describe as links between Islamist groups in Bangladesh and Yunus’s interim administration.
During his 18-month tenure, Yunus faced repeated allegations from the ousted Sheikh Hasina, her Awami League party, and several analysts, who accused his government of fostering or enabling radical Islamist elements in the aftermath of the August 2024 uprising.
