ISI Chief’s Secret Visit to Dhaka: Raises Military and Regional Security Concerns

Ajoy Bangali

Dhaka: The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Muhammad Yunus, is under scrutiny as reports of a visit by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt. Gen. Asim Malik, and three senior officials emerge during Yunus’s unannounced trip to Switzerland. This visit marks the first by an ISI chief to Bangladesh in decades, reportedly aimed at establishing a joint intelligence-sharing network.

Accompanying Gen. Malik were Maj. Gen. Shahid Amir Afsar, Maj. Gen. Alam Amin Awan, and Muhammad Usman Yateef. The interim government’s press wing denied the visit, but a senior intelligence officer confirmed the arrival of all four ISI officials, revealing that they spent January 23 in Rangpur Cantonment near India’s strategic “Chicken Neck” corridor.

Gen. Malik reportedly arrived in Dhaka via Dubai and was received by Quartermaster General Lt. Gen. Mohammad Faizur Rahman, known for alleged links to Islamic extremists and close ties to Pakistan, further fueling suspicion about the visit’s motives.

Military Unrest Amid ISI Influence

Since January 22, reports of unrest within the Bangladesh military have circulated, with claims that Lt. Gen. Faizur Rahman, allegedly aligned with Jamaat-e-Islami, is plotting a coup. He is said to be working with Lt. Gen. S. M. Kamrul Hasan, Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division, who was previously linked to a covert trip to Pakistan.

According to sources, the alleged coup attempt coincided with Muhammad Yunus’s absence to minimize political fallout. The ISI’s involvement reportedly aims to destabilize the military further and pave the way for collaborative intelligence-sharing between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Former intelligence officer and security analyst Aminul Haque Palash told BD Digest that the secretive visit of the ISI chief to Bangladesh, as reported, could provoke unrest within the military, pushing the country toward civil war. He added that it could also create distrust and conflict in diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, while threatening regional stability.

Citing the example of Ukraine, he said that under puppet leader Zelensky, the country fell into war with Russia after stepping into a trap set by the American intelligence agency CIA. The tragic fate of Ukraine is now evident to the entire world, and even the current U.S. administration is no longer supporting them. Muhammad Yunus, who seized power in Bangladesh following a military-backed student uprising, is leading the country toward a similar fate.

India has expressed alarm over the ISI’s possible role in facilitating cross-border terrorism, particularly near the strategic “Chicken Neck” area. An editorial by Dipanjan Roy Chowdhury, Bureau Chief of *The Economic Times*, highlighted India’s security concerns.

Sources suggest the ISI seeks to establish a network enabling increased terrorist activity within Indian territory. This visit followed a recent high-level meeting in Islamabad between Lt. Gen. Kamrul Hasan and Pakistan’s military leadership, marking the first such engagement in years.

The covert visit, paired with Gen. Malik’s agenda, has prompted regional security analysts to call for closer scrutiny of Bangladesh’s internal developments and its implications for South Asia’s stability.