Jamaat Chief Slams Bangladesh President, Sparks Debate Over Alleged Yunus–Islamist Nexus

Last Updated:February 26, 2026, 14:10 IST

The President revealed that the Yunus administration put him under virtual house arrest, tried to unseat him from the Presidency several times.

Days after Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin spoke publicly about how he was treated by the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the chief of the Islamist party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami launched a sharp criticism of the President.

In a Facebook post, the Jamaat-e-Islami chief and current Leader of the Opposition, Shafiqur Rahman, questioned why Shahabuddin had allegedly withheld key details about the events of August 5, 2024 — the day Hasina left the country.

On that day, Hasina’s Awami League government was forced from power amid deadly nationwide protests and later the administration was overtaken by the Islamists.

Shahabuddin, in an interview with Bangla newspaper Kaler Kontho, slammed the Yunus regime, terming its rule and many of its actions as unconstitutional, India Today reported.

The President also revealed that the Yunus administration put him under virtual house arrest, tried to unseat him from the Presidency several times and prevented him from flying out of Bangladesh for medical treatment.

Notably, Shahabuddin was appointed as the President of Bangladesh in April 2023 by the Hasina-led Awami League government.

Jamaat Chief Criticises Shahabuddin

As Shahbuddin criticised Yunus and his regime during the interview, Jamaat supremo Shafiqur Rahman attacked him over hiding details regarding the August 2024 protests in Bangladesh.

“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," Rahman wrote on Facebook, slamming the President.

Shafiqur was referring to the controversy over Sheikh Hasina’s missing resignation letter, a document which was constitutionally required to legitimise the coming in of Yunus’s interim regime in the country.

“You know Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has tendered her resignation letter to the President and I have received it," Shahabuddin had said in a televised address to the nation on August 5, hours after Hasina left.

Later after two months later, the President claimed that he had only heard that Hasina had resigned, but had no evidence of her resignation.

“I tried [to collect the resignation letter] many times but failed. Maybe she did not have the time," Shahabuddin had said to Dhaka-based newspaper, Janatar Chokh in October 2024.

Shahabuddin On Bangladesh-US Trade Deal

Citing what he described as a “secretive" trade agreement between Bangladesh and the United States — signed hurriedly by the Yunus-led interim administration in its final days and shielded by a Non-Disclosure Agreement — Mohammed Shahabuddin said he had not been informed of the deal.

“Such a state agreement should have been communicated to me. But, he [Yunus] did not do it," Shahabuddin remarked.

Shahabuddin further claimed that he was able to remain in office only because of backing from senior figures within the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and support from the armed forces.

“A high-ranking BNP leader assured me of their support. We want to maintain constitutional continuity. We are not in favour of removing the President through any unconstitutional means," he said.

Questions On Yunus-Islamist Nexus

The significance of the Jamaat chief’s response lies in longstanding allegations that Islamist groups such as Jamaat and its male student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, played a key role in the downfall of the Awami League government.

Several reports have suggested that Islamist factions and the interim administration shared a mutually beneficial understanding from the outset.

Furthermore, several student leaders who spearheaded the anti-Hasina movement — including Nahid Islam, later a founder of the National Citizens Party — went on to align with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of the 2026 elections.

A number of these former student activists also secured ministerial positions in the cabinet led by Muhammad Yunus.

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