The US plan to install a Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime in Dhaka dates back to at least March 2023 when the then 83-year-old Grameen Group chairman pulled himself out of conglomerates topmost position and allowed three senior colleagues to function as co-group chairpersons, documents in the possession of Northeast News show.
A March 7, 2023, ‘office order’ issued under the signature of Grameen Group Chairman’s Secretariat reveals that Yunus created three new posts of co-group chairperson.
The first Co-Group Chairperson that Yunus appointed was Grameen Telecom Trust Managing Director Mohammad Shahjahan, followed by Mohammad Ashraful Hassan, who was the Managing Director of Ananya Construction and Developments Ltd.
The third Co-Group Chairperson to be appointed that spring of 2023 was Noorjehan Begum who was the Executive Vice-Chairman of Grameen Shiksha.
“In the absence of the Group Chairman (Yunus), his responsibilities would be assumed by the first Co-Group Chairperson. In the absence of both the Group Chairman and the first Co-Group Chairperson, the second Co-Group Chairperson would fulfill the Group Chairman’s responsibilities. Likewise, in the absence of the Group Chairman and the first and second Co-Group Chairpersons, the head of the organisation’s responsibilities would be overseen by the third Co-Group Chairperson,” the office order reveals.
Directing that the office order be executed and implemented with “immediate effect”, only print versions of the directive were marked to four other senior executives of Grameen Group companies.
Grameen Group insiders Northeast News spoke with revealed that “recent reports of US involvement in the regime change in Dhaka led many in Yunus’ Grameen empire reach the inescapable conclusion that he was handpicked by US interests such as former State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton and others in the Bidon administration to be part of the wider conspiracy to first unseat Sheikh Hasina and then assume office even in an interim capacity”.
These insiders that Mohammad Shahjahan would certainly have found place in the interim government but he dropped out within weeks of being appointed as the first Co-Group Chairperson on health grounds.
“It was decided as far back as the summer of 2023 that Ashraful Hassan would assume the role of Grameen Group chairman which he officially did towards the end of August 2024. He posted on his LinkedIn page that he was he was “happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Chairman at Grameen Group”.
The Grameen Group insiders “could join the dots, between Yunus’ decision to step down as group chairman and his appointment as head of the interim government, only now when reports of US involvement in the regime change Dhaka appeared in foreign news media platforms”.
These insiders said they were “puzzled” and “baffled” by early August 2024 media reports that Yunus would stopover in Paris for a surgery before reaching Dhaka. “These were totally false. Yunus did not undergo any surgery or medical procedure. We are at the heart of the Dhaka-based Yunus Centre. We know. His Paris sojourn was part of his programme to meet with US officials before he landed in Dhaka.
The student coordinators, who interacted with the Bangladeshi media at that time also resorted to obfuscation when they declared in Dhaka on August 6 that they had “determined that the interim government will be led by internationally renowned Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, who has broad acceptability”.
In this context Grameen Gorup insiders said that what the student coordinators may not have known at that time was that US officials at several levels had already conveyed to Yunus that he would head any authority that would replace the Sheikh Hasina dispensation.
