In what is being considered rather unusual, Bangladesh’s Home Secretary Nasimul Gani, who has Hizbut Tehrir antecedents, is on a second long tour of Pakistan that began on November 7, Northeast News has reliably learnt.
Gani was on a nine-day visit to Pakistan a month-and-a-half ago.
He left for Islamabad on September 17 on a Thai Airway flight and he was received at the airport there by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry Special Secretary Dawood Muhammad Bareach and Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan Mohammad Iqbal Hussain Khan.
The second visit is already into its tenth day, with no official announcement by the Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime which, along with the defence forces, are on an overdrive to deepen relations with Pakistan.
Since August 8, 2024, when Yunus assumed charge as Chief Adviser following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime, there have been a series of visits by Pakistani ministers, senior bureaucrats and top defence officers.
The most recent visit to Bangladesh by a senior Pakistani armed forces officer was that of Navy chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf who toured the country between November 8 and 12.
But Gani’s unusually long visit to Pakistan, especially at a time when the law and order situation across Bangladesh has been a matter of concern and there is widespread apprehension of tension that could arise as a consequence of the International Crimes Tribunal’s sentencing of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is being closely monitored by Indian security agencies.
Gani’s presence in Pakistan also takes place at a time when Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Khalilur Rahman is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in New Delhi on November 19 or 20.
Khalilur Rahman’s New Delhi visit is said to be on Doval’s invitation to attend the two-day Colombo Security Conclave.
Pakistan-Bangladesh cooperation on matters related to foreign policy and security began soon after August 8, 2024. Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aamna Baloch visited Dhaka in April this year.
Earlier, in January 2025, a three-member team of Pakistani ISI officers led by a major general was in the Bangladesh capital and reportedly visited some areas bordering India.
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Bangladesh DGFI chief Major General Jahangir Alam has not visited Pakistan so far, but he has held meetings with ISI officers in third countries, including Turkey.
More recently, between November 4 and 6, Bangladesh’s Environment, Forest and Climate Change Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan visited Pakistan.
She is the first among all the interim regime advisers to visit Pakistan, but with a difference – her husband and three other relatives accompanied her on the trip.
What makes Gani’s Pakistan visit intriguing, if not concerning, is that the interim regime neither made no official announcement of the officials he is scheduled to meet there and whether there might be any concrete outcome in terms of signing of agreements.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have already taken a decision to “abolish” visa for the travel of their officials holding diplomatic passports.
