Swarajya Exclusive: How US ‘Deep State’ And Pakistan Backed An Islamist Radical To Mastermind Regime Change In Bangladesh

Ever since the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, introduced Mohammad Mahfuz Alam as the “brain behind the whole revolution” at an event in New York last week, the 29-year-old Alam and his links with an Islamic terror outfit have come under sharp scrutiny.

Alam is a special assistant to Yunus and enjoys the rank of secretary of a ministry. Alam and two others who led the so-called students’ movement that unseated Sheikh Hasina from power on 5 August had accompanied Yunus to New York. 

Bangladesh’s political observers say that the revelation by Yunus, who is a greenhorn in governance and realpolitik, was perhaps done unwittingly. 

Nonetheless, it was an important revelation that not only disproved the commonly held belief that the students’ movement in Bangladesh was spontaneous and apolitical but also exposed the role of Islamists in the movement. 

Swarajya spoke to Bangladeshi diplomats, politicians, journalists, civil society leaders, one prominent Dhaka University student who played a leadership role in the movement, security officials, as well as Indian intelligence officials, to piece together Alam’s role in the movement.

Alam’s Early Life And Radicalisation

Alam, who hails from Ramganj district of Chittagong division in eastern Bangladesh, belongs to a highly conservative Muslim family. 

He completed dakhil (equivalent to matriculation) from Gallak Darussunnat Alim Madrasah in Chandpur (Chittagong) and then his alim (equivalent to higher secondary) from Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasah before enrolling in the law department of Dhaka University in 2015. 

Both the madrasas where Alam spent his formative years are known to be run by Salafi Islamits who propagate a puritanical and regressive version of Islam. These two are among the many madrasas of Bangladesh that receive huge funds from abroad and are frequented by firebrand mullahs who are said to have close links with various Islamic terror outfits. 

The two madrasas, especially the Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasah in Tongi town of Ghazipur district north of Dhaka, are breeding grounds of fanatical Islamists. This madrasa proudly lists its alumni as leaders of Islamic Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. 

Leaders of the Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS) as well as the Jamaat are frequent visitors to the institution and deliver fiery speeches. The madrasa is suspected to have received funding from Pakistan in the past. 

A former officer of Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence (NSI) — the agency tasked with internal security — told Swarajya that the Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasah churns out a steady stream of radicalised youngsters who join the ICS, Jamaat, and even some proscribed Islamist outfits. 

The ICS and Jamaat, which have intimate ties with Pakistan’s notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), also have close links with various Islamic terror outfits. A number of ICS members have reportedly been recruited by al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State. 

Alam, say those who have investigated his past, came under the influence of these radical Islamists. 

“He was very studious and intelligent. From a young age, he was quiet and somewhat of an introvert, but very observant and had a sharp mind. A radical Islamist cleric took Alam under his wings and started grooming him when he was around 13 years old,” said the former NSI officer. 

The NSI, which had kept the ICS, Jamaat, and other Islamist organisations of Bangladesh under its radar, has a huge volume of information on various madrasas and clerics. 

The ICS and Jamaat have been accused of many crimes against Hindus, secular bloggers, artistes, and others in Bangladesh. They want Islamic rule in the country, and their goal is to make Bangladesh an Islamic caliphate. 

When Alam passed out of the Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasah in 2013 (at the age of 18), he was already highly radicalised. “His intelligence, sharp mind, introverted nature, discretion, and ability to strategise made him an asset for Islamists,” said a contemporary of Alam at Dhaka University. 

When Alam joined Dhaka University, he came in touch with a professor who was closely linked to the Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), a proscribed terror outfit. The HuT has a good, though covert, presence in Dhaka University as well as some other universities, including the private North-South University. 

While at Dhaka University, Alam maintained a low profile. His contemporaries say he had no close friends and preferred to be a loner. But he used to discreetly meet with ICS and HuT activists outside the university campus. 

The only things out of place with Alam at Dhaka University were his possession of multiple cell phones, radical Islamist books and literature in his room, and some ‘outsiders’ he used to meet on the university campus. 

Many in Bangladesh believe that Alam secretly became a member of the HuT sometime in 2019. Though no concrete evidence of this has been unearthed as yet, he is said to have been seen with known activists of the HuT in Dhaka and Chittagong. 

“Mahfuz Alam’s ability to operate covertly is evident from the fact that he has managed to evade scrutiny of intelligence agencies for such a long time. His qualities as a brilliant organiser have also come to light now,” said a senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who had served in the Bangladesh Army and retired as a Brigadier General. He was also attached to the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Bangladesh’s defence intelligence agency.

Recruitment By Pakistan And US ‘Deep State’

Alam, through his close links with the ICS and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, as well as his mentor at the Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasah, came in close touch with Pakistan’s ISI. 

Sometime in 2022, he was recruited by the ISI to foment trouble against the Hasina government. Alam was told to start organising young radical Islamists — students of colleges and universities, as well as workers in various sectors — from all over the country into small sleeper cells that could be activated at an opportune time. 

Alam, thanks to superb organising skills and his ability to act covertly, formed many such cells, especially in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Jessore, and Khulna. 

“The striking part is that only Alam and less than half a dozen close associates knew about these cells who were not even aware of each others’ existence,” said the BNP leader, who has studied the students’ movement closely since July this year. 

Alam also took care to remain discreet and behave like an ordinary young man without drawing attention to himself. He did not take to growing a beard or dressing like a conservative Muslim. 

In 2023, the United States (US) initiated a ‘regime change’ operation in Bangladesh. The US, especially powerful elements in the Biden administration, developed an intense antipathy towards Hasina and the Awami League. 

“There were two parallel forces at work against the Hasina government in the US. The first — and this comprised mainly bleeding-heart Democrats — had become hostile to Hasina because of the perceived ‘democratic backslide’ in Bangladesh triggered by the growing authoritarian nature of the Hasina regime. This powerful lobby launched a ‘restore democracy’ mission in Bangladesh,” said a senior Indian intelligence officer who has kept close tabs on Bangladesh. 

“The second powerful lobby comprised Islamists within the Democratic Party like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib who were very unhappy with Sheikh Hasina for the unrelenting crackdown on Islamist forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. Both the lobbies also have cross-linkages and commonality of interests on many issues,” the officer added.

These two forces have convergences in organisations like the Clinton Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, which, under the garb of promoting human rights and free media in the rest of the world, have often worked wittingly and unwittingly in tandem with Islamists. 

The so-called ‘progressive’ organisations also had deep links with prominent individuals like Yunus in Bangladesh. Yunus was drafted into the ‘restore democracy’ project by his powerful benefactors in the US. 

The US ‘deep state’ (the powerful military-industrial-intelligence establishment) was also acutely unhappy with Hasina for not aligning herself with US interests in the region. 

At the same time, the links between Pakistan, especially its ISI, and sections of the US ‘deep state’ had survived the downturn in US-Pakistan ties in recent times. These sections of the US ‘deep state’ joined the ISI in plotting the overthrow of the Hasina government in Bangladesh. 

After Hasina shrugged off pressure from the US to accommodate the BNP’s demands for participating in the parliamentary election held last year-end and returned to power in January this year, all these forces intensified their efforts to overthrow her. 

Pakistan’s ISI, which had been nurturing Alam, then shared its ‘asset’ with the US ‘deep state’ and the powerful lobbies in Washington that wanted to remove Hasina from power. 

How The Revolution Unfolded

Alam, who had been preparing since 2022 for such a ‘movement’, was asked to look for an opportunity to mobilise students against the government. 

That opportunity presented itself when the Bangladesh High Court scrapped a 2018 circular (which had been issued by the Hasina government) cancelling a 30 per cent quota for descendants of freedom fighters in government jobs on 5 June. 

Students started protesting the order and demanding the scrapping of this and other quotas. Students of Dhaka University and some other universities started a movement under the banner of ‘Boishimo Birodhi Chhatra Andolan’ (Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement) by the second week of June. 

The Hasina government assured the protesting students that an appeal would be filed before the Supreme Court and, if necessary, a law would be enacted in Parliament scrapping all quotas. 

But this assurance failed to placate the students, and the movement gradually gained momentum. “The students who were leading the movement were puppets in the hands of powerful forces. Those forces had no interest in backing away and, hence, despite the government’s assurances that the students’ demands would be met, the movement did not die down and only intensified,” an Awami League leader who fled to a South East Asian country in early August told Swarajya. 

The ICS, Jamaat-e-Islami, and other radical Islamists quickly infiltrated the students’ movement and, acting in a coordinated manner, started attacking the police and government properties. 

This invited a brutal retaliation, and the government unleashed not only the security forces but also the Chhatra League (the students’ wing of the ruling Awami League) cadres on the protesting students, especially in Dhaka University and other campuses.

By doing so, the Hasina government played right into the hands of the conspirators at home and abroad. “They (the conspirators) were waiting for precisely this. Some extremist elements that infiltrated the students’ movement provoked the government, and the government retaliated. That triggered outrage, and, as more violence and counter-violence erupted, things slipped out of control,” said the Indian intelligence officer. 

The Hasina government’s attempt to snuff out the students’ movement by arresting its leaders proved to be ineffective precisely because most of the real players behind the movement were acting covertly behind the scenes and could not be identified. 

Alam’s handlers in Pakistan and the US had prepared him for exactly this scenario. The sleeper cells that he had built in university campuses were activated, and even if one cell was busted, there were others to carry on and intensify the movement. 

The army, the only institution that could have stepped in to control the students’ movement, was then warned by some Western powers to stay aloof. 

The Western powers, especially the US, have a huge leverage over the Bangladesh Army. Bangladesh is the largest contributor to the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions, and these overseas deployments are hugely lucrative for Bangladesh Army soldiers and officers who are paid modest salaries. 

In fact, deployments in UN peacekeeping missions are much sought after by Bangladesh Army soldiers and officers. 

The Bangladesh Army leadership was bluntly told that if it got involved in quelling the unrest in the country and helping the Hasina government survive, it would have a stiff price to pay. Army officers, soldiers, and units involved in quelling protests would be identified and blacklisted and would never be able to participate in UN peacekeeping missions. 

The army, thus, stood down and refused to heed Hasina’s requests to intervene and restore law and order. The army chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, conveyed the army’s stance to Hasina on 4 August evening. 

The army chief is related to Hasina — he is married to the eldest daughter of Hasina’s uncle, General Mustafizur Rahman, who served as army chief between 1997 and 2000 — but expressed his inability to help his wife’s cousin (Hasina) stay in power.

In the early hours of 5 August, before the ‘March to Dhaka’ by tens of thousands of protestors began, General Waker met Hasina at Gonobhaban (the Prime Minister’s official residence) and told her that things were spiralling out of control and her life was in danger. 

General Waker and other top security officials as well as bureaucrats told Hasina she would have to flee the country. Hasina refused and even turned down repeated pleas by her own sister, Sheikh Rehana. 

Ultimately, the army chief and others called up Hasina’s son, Shajeeb Wazed, who lives in the US, and told him about the gravity of the situation. Shajeeb then told his mother she had to leave the country to save her life. 

Barely half an hour after Hasina and her sister were evacuated from Gonobhaban and flown to an air base in a military helicopter, frenzied mobs stormed Gonobhaban. By that time, Hasina had boarded another military aircraft that brought her to India. 

The ignominious exit of Hasina represented a triumph of many forces that wanted her ouster. Mohammad Mahfuz Alam played a critical role in this whole project and is now a powerful figure in the interim government. 

His ascent to power also translates to the mainstreaming of Bangladesh’s radical Islamists in the country’s polity. It is no coincidence that immediately after Alam was appointed as a special assistant to Yunus, the Hizb ut-Tahrir demanded that the ban on the outfit be lifted!

Alam will continue to play a major role in Bangladesh. He represents the country’s Islamists, who are now on the ascendancy.