A day after a crucial meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh interim authority Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus in Bangkok, the Director General of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) left Dhaka for Spain for a key conference of chiefs of other countries, including Pakistan and Turkey.
At least two senior officials in Bangladesh’s security establishment confirmed the visit of DGFI chief Major General Jahangir Alam’s departure for Madrid. Maj Gen Alam is being accompanied by Brigadier General Mehedi Hossain Kabir who is the Director of the Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau unit that functions as an elite component of the DGFI.
However, a third source in the security paraphernalia only confirmed that Maj Gen Alam “would remain out of station for a few days”.
Two other junior officials, including a member of Maj Gen Alam’s official staff, accompanied the team to the Spanish capital where they will attend a conference being hosted by the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), Spain’s intelligence agency.
Security officials of several intelligence agencies of other countries, including Turkey’s Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT), or National Intelligence Organization, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and a host of western countries will also attend the conference. Maj Gen Alam is expected to return to Dhaka on April 11.
While sources were chary to disclose Maj Gen Alam’s precise agenda in Madrid, he is expected to hold meetings with MIT Director Ibrahim Kalin who also fulfils the role of Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister.
It is believed that while the ISI played a clandestine role in the students’ movement that led to the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August 2024, three senior officers of the Pakistani intelligence agency, led by a Major General, visited Bangladesh in January this year.
This team, comprising Maj Gen Shahid Amir Afsar, Maj Gen Alam Amir Awan and Muhammad Usman Zatif, landed in Dhaka on January 21 before being taken on a tour to sensitive areas along the India-Bangladesh border, including Rangpur which is close to India’s ‘Chicken’s Neck’ or the Siliguri Corridor.
This ISI team was in Bangladesh after the January 13-18 visit to Rawalpindi of Bangladesh’s Principal Staff Officer (PSO) in the Armed Forces Division, Lieutenant General S M Kamr-ul-Hassan.
The Bangladeshi general had also toured Pakistan Navy ships and units during his visit to the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.
Besides, he met Pakistan Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Abdul Munib, Coast Commander Rear Admiral Faisal Amin and Managing Director of Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KS&EW) Rear Admiral Salman Ilyas.
Soon after the students’ movement settled down, reports appeared in some sections of the media that small consignments of Turkey-origin automatic weapons were smuggled into Bangladesh and were reportedly used during the violence between July and August 2024.
