The advisers who were sworn in on Sunday evening are businessman Sk Bashir Uddin, filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and special assistant to the chief adviser Mahfouz Alam. Alam, a student with alleged allegiance to extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) was earlier appointed as special secretary to Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh.
People told ET that some of the newly appointed advisers have links with HuT which is banned in India and several other countries.
Besides Jamaat-e-Islami, the growing network of HuT in Bangladesh is under the scanner of security agencies globally. HuT first became active in Bangladesh when the BNP-Jamaat coalition was in power, advocating for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. The organisation is also banned in several other Muslim-majority countries due to allegations of spreading extremism globally.
Besides Jamaat, HuT, terror and extremist organisations like Hefazat and Ansarullah Bangla Team have impunity across Bangladesh in the post-Hasina period, counter terror experts said.
The appointment of new advisers have also drawn flak from some student leaders who led the movement to oust Sheikh Hasina from power.Sarjis Alam, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has strongly criticised the selection of new advisers.Alam wrote on his Facebook page, “13 advisers from just 1 division! But there is no single adviser from the North Bengal’s Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions’ 16 districts! On top of that, the killer Hasina’s lackeys are also becoming advisers!”
Ashrafa Khatun, another coordinator of the movement, said while the government does not give importance to the coordinators, people hold them responsible for the government’s failure. If a revolutionary government was formed, this would not have happened, Khatun said.