Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Khalilur Rahman’s two-day visit to New Delhi on November 19 will take place at a time when former Sheikh Hasina has, in a series of interviews to western and Indian media platforms, refrained from holding the US responsible for her ouster from power in August 2024.
Khalilur Rahman will be in the Indian capital, said to be at the invitation of NSA Ajit Doval, to attend the seventh meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave to be held on November 19 and 20. He is expected to meet Doval whom he last met in Bangkok on the sidelines of the fourth BIMSTEC summit on April 4.
Khalilur Rahman will be accompanied by another Bangladeshi official whose identity is not known yet.
Besides Bangladesh’s prevailing political landscape, the Indian national security bureaucracy will likely take the opportunity to share its concerns with the visiting NSA the frequent visits to Dhaka of senior Pakistani military officials among whom the most recent was Navy chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf and Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Sahir Shamshad Mirza.
Since assuming the role of NSA, Khalilur Rahman has travelled to Doha, Qatar, at least on two occasions, besides the US where he has met key State Department officials.
More importantly, he played a frontal role in moves aimed at operationalising a “humanitarian corridor” first proposed as a means to supply aid to the Arakan Army before projecting it as a pathway for Rohingya refugee repatriation to Maungdaw and Buthidaung in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
This led to a direct confrontation with the Army which moved to bar him from entering Dhaka Cantonment even as General Waker-uz-Zaman strongly opposed the humanitarian corridor proposal.
Bangladesh security sources said that Khalilur Rahman also sought to play a shadowy role in encouraging a section of the Army and the Border Guards Bangladesh to push armed Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) fighters into the Rakhine State to take on the Arakan Army.
Khalilur Rahman’s forthcoming New Delhi visit – there is no confirmation yet whether he will have a one-on-one meeting with Doval – assumes importance in the context of Bangladesh’s uncertain political landscape.
The Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime has promised to hold elections in the first half of February 2026, but the Election Commission has not declared any firm date for the proposed polls.
While the BNP is favourably inclined for the February 2026 elections, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the National Citizens Party and sundry political outfits are not keen to contest the polls, while there is a move to hold a referendum the same day Bangladeshi’s cast their ballots.
On its part, New Delhi has not shown any overt signs of regaining a foothold in Bangladesh following the US-backed move to push out Sheikh Hasina by its clandestine support to a movement led by university and college students.
The Indian establishment has, however, made it clear on multiple occasions that it favoured an inclusive election whenever it is held.
More recently, however, in several interviews to western and Indian media platforms, Sheikh Hasina strategically avoided attacking the US in general or its ‘deep state’ in particular for being responsible for her ouster from power last year.
This, Dhaka-based political analysts indicated, was a clear signal that she was not averse to build bridges with the US and was prepared to “bargain” for her party’s re-entry into Bangladesh’s turbulent politics.
The Yunus-led interim regime has made some “noises” on disallowing the Awami League from contesting the election in February 2026, but the BNP of late has not been openly hostile to the participation of Hasina’s party in the polls.
