After exercising restraint for more than a month, Bangladesh Amry chief General Waker-uz-Zaman today took it upon himself to meet Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus to obtain his approval on all pending files related to the promotion of officers in the ranks of lieutenant colonels, colonels and brigadiers.
While much of Bangladeshi media speculated on Gen Zaman’s meeting with Yunus, especially in the backdrop of the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, the Army chief urged Yunus to delink the names of officers facing criminal prosecution in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) where several of them were sought to be tried for their alleged involvement in extra-judicial killings and other misdemeanours during the July-August 2024 uprising.
Amid widespread speculation, Gen Zaman also met President Mohammad Shahabuddin ‘Chuppu’ to not only brief him about his recent weeklong (August 21-28) visit to China – which was also taken up with Yunus today – but also the presidential seal against all 70 files related to the officers’ promotion.
“The Army chief waited for over a month after the exercise initiated by the Army Promotion Board which met between July 21 and 28 to discuss and deliberate on each promotion case involving lieutenant colonels, colonels, brigadiers and majors general. Today, he got all the files cleared in one go,” a senior government official said.
As far as the prosecution of about eight Army officers – allegedly involved in committing crimes against humanity in cases related to the July-August uprising – Gen Zaman was of the view that they could be tried in some other judicial forum and not the ICT which has faced criticism for being not being a judicially and legally sound platform and instead being a place for “settling political scores”.
Maj Gen (retd) Ziaul Ehsan is among the eight officers who have been charged with committing crimes against humanity during the July-August 2024 uprising.
Gen Zaman met Bangladesh’s Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed to impress upon him the “need and urgency” to delink the eight Army officers from being proceeded against at the ICT. He also sought to know the legal bases and process involved in dissociating the eight Army officers from legal cases that the ICT was overseeing.
Yesterday, Principal Staff Officer in the Armed Forces Division, Lieutenant General Kamrul Hassan met Yunus to apprise him of the Army’s preparedness and deployment during the proposed February 2026 general elections for which no firm date has yet been fixed.
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While Gen Zaman today set off for Bangabhaban, the presidential palace, US Chargé d’Affaires Tracey Ann Jacobson was scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner A M M Nasir Uddin, pointing to the shadowy role that the US embassy in Dhaka has been playing in Bangladesh’s political landscape.
Over the past three weeks, Jacobson sought to embroil herself ever deeply in Bangladeshi politics, meeting representatives of various parties and Chief Justice Refaat Ahmed most recently.
Meanwhile, the arrival in Dhaka of former US Ambassador Peter D Haas late on Saturday night has not gone unnoticed with different political and security quarters expecting him to become “politically active” during his week-long sojourn. Haas is a strategic adviser with Texas-based Excelerate Energy which has an establishment in Cox’s Bazar.
