Two weeks before Bangladesh goes to elections on January 7, Bangladesh Army last week issued a general directive forbidding use of all social media platforms by all officers and soldiers stationed at all cantonments and other field formations, documents accessed by Northeast News reveal.
What is, however, alarming is that Bangladesh’s internal intelligence agency, the National Security Intelligence (NSI), suspects at least one foreign intelligence agency to be in touch with a few high-ranking officers, including two lieutenant generals, who are well-placed enough to cause significant difference in decisions related to the conduct of the otherwise controversial elections.
In a surprising move, the election-related deployment of army units, originally made for December 29 was pushed to January 3.
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Besides soldiers from 10 Infantry Divisions, troops from two Independent ADA Brigades, one unit each of the Independent Engineers Brigade and Independent Signals Brigade and an Independent Infantry Brigade were scheduled to be deployed for election duty on November 29.
According to a December 21 directive issued by ARTDOC, the Mymensing cantonment-based Army Training and Doctrine Command – the army formations, which will be deployed across all the districts from January 3, have been forbidden the use of “electronic gadgets and social media platforms” such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Viber, Twitter (now X) Imo and Facebook Messenger.
Specifically, according to the order which “must be” shared with all the army units (by December 24) that will be deployed for the polls, officers and troops will not be allowed to be part of any new groups on Whatsapp, Signal, Facebook or FB Messenger.
Citing previous such orders (issued by the Bangladesh Army Headquarters in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023), the directive, signed by Lieutenant Colonel Masihur Rahman for a General Officer Commanding (GOC), also seeks full compliance of the restrictions at all units and formations by December 24.
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The Army Headquarters’ December 12 “LOG MSG-1” specifically stated that “THE DEPL (deployment) IS LIKELY TO BE DOWN TO UPAZILLA LEVEL, FMNS (formations) ARE REQD TO TAKE NEC PREP. DETAIL INSTR WILL FOL”.
This was issued by Brigadier General Ferdous Hasan Salim.
Interestingly, Bangladesh Army chief General S M Shafiuddin Ahmed met with several GOCs on December 25 when a decision was taken to shift the deployment date to January 3.
Bangladesh government sources are now wondering whether the NSI’s information regarding the relationship of a few senior Army officers, including at least two lieutenant generals, with foreign intelligence operatives may have had any bearing on the change in the deployment dates.
The establishment that one of the lieutenant generals heads keeps virtually day-to-day contact with combat formations, including battalions and brigades. This officer is scheduled to retire on December 31.
The other lieutenant general headed a most sensitive establishment before he took up his present assignment. This officer is said to have maintained contact with an intelligence official of a Western country.
