Seven days after his 17-day leave, including a visit to the United States, expired, Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, Special Assistant to Bangladesh interim regime Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus is yet to rejoin work, setting off speculations whether he will at all rejoin work or not.
Chowdhury’s absence has raised the hackles of the country’s political leadership and security apparatus even as there is complete on the part of the Home Ministry that is led by Lieutenant General (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury who had handpicked the former inspector general of police.
The Home Ministry has not issued any order indicating that Chowdhury, who enjoys the rank of a minister, extended his leave.
Official documents accessed Northeast News show that Chowdhury applied for leave in the second week of September.
Subsequently, on September 15, the Bangladesh Home Ministry issued a notification that the government had approved the “ex-Bangladesh leave in favour of Mohammad Khuda Baksh Chowdhury” and that he would “visit” Austin, Texas, from October 24 to November 9.
Chowdhury would travel on diplomatic passport number D00017417.
During the period he was to be on leave, Chowdhury would “draw his pay and allowances in local (Bangladeshi) currency” and that “no part of it should be drawn in foreign currency”.
The official order said that Chowdhury would bear all expenses related to the visit. Chowdhury’s spouse Fayzun Nessa Begum, who holds Bangladeshi passport (number A12131536) would also accompany him to the US.
But now, a week after he was scheduled to rejoin work at the secretariat, Chowdhury, who previously served as the senior police adviser at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan between June 2008 and April 2010 and was moved as Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General on October 31, 2006.
On November 2, 2006, he was promoted as an inspector general of police. Chowdhury took voluntary retirement in 2009.
After his appointment as Special Adviser to Yunus on November 10, 2024, Chowdhury was drafted to the Home Ministry to work alongside Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.
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Earlier, on October 20, allegations surfaced over 73-year-old Khuda Baksh Chowdhury’s undue control over the Home Ministry and the powers that he exercised in the appointment and transfer of police officers.
Besides, his past was dug up to unearth that he was supposedly a Chhatra League activist when he was a university student in Dhaka.
On October 12 this year, Northeast News had reported that Chowdhury has spun a “concocted tale” about the so-called movement of troops of the Bangladesh Army’s 46th Infantry Brigade.
Acting without verifying the so-called troops movement, Chowdhury is said to have called up the Paris-based social media influencer Pinaki Bhattacharya who promptly put out a video that was considered “alarming” by Army headquarters.
