Ever since his move to push a “humanitarian corridor” from Bangladesh to Myanmar’s Rakhine State was thwarted by the Army top brass, National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman has been consciously keeping away from most matters related to the Army.
The latest instance of Khalilur Rahman’s “allergy” with the Army is his absence from meetings related to the Army Promotion Board, whose inaugural confabulation was attended by Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus on July 20.
The Army Headquarters Selection Board-2025 kicked off its first meeting in Dhaka that very day. As the NSA, Khalilur Rahman was conspicuous by his absence even as Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, other senior officers and Yunus’ Special Assistant Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Hafiz attended the inaugural meeting.
Lt Gen Hafiz has since been attending the promotion board’s daily meetings, which aim to make decisions on elevating officers to the ranks of lieutenant colonels, colonels and brigadiers.
But Khalilur Rahman has shied away from attending these meetings which will continue through this week before concluding on July 28.
Last month, the NSA was in the US on an official visit before he reached Beijing, where he met Chinese officials between June 27 and 29. He then flew back to the US from where he reached Dhaka about ten days ago.
He has since occupied himself with preparing a key meeting on the Rohingya refugee crisis in New York. Besides being the NSA, Khalilur Rahman holds the position of High Representative on Rohingya Issue.
He was effectively “shunned” by the Army establishment since General Zaman took a strong stand against the “humanitarian corridor” issue. This was an outcome of Khalilur Rahman’s unstinted support for the controversial suggestion, first made by the United Nations, that was aimed at facilitating supplies of logistics and other material to the Arakan Army.
However, the political storm that Khalilur Rahman’s pursuit of the “humanitarian corridor” issue raised stopped him from taking forward the matter.
Since then, he has not voluntarily raised the issue of support to the Arakan Army, though there are indications that the Bangladesh armed forces and other government agencies have not fully backed off from the plan to provide military assistance to the Rakhine State insurgent group.
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However, the NSA held a meeting with Myanmar’s ambassador in Dhaka, U Kyaw Soe Moe, on July 15 when issues in “bilateral relations” and “areas of mutual interests” were reportedly discussed.
In this context, sources said that “other avenues” were being explored by “geopolitical forces” to provide material support, in the form of logistics and equipment, to the Arakan Army.
