Thakurgaon-1 By-Election: Mirza Faisal’s ‘Miraculous Victory’ by a Margin of 131,000 Votes

❐ Local correspondent

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Despite the contradictory picture of voter turnout throughout the day in the country’s major media outlets and social media, BNP candidate Mirza Faisal Amin was elected by a margin of more than 1.25 lakh votes in the Thakurgaon-1 constituency by-election.

The voter turnout in this by-election was 64.77 percent. The BNP candidate’s jubilant workers and supporters called it a “miraculous victory,” calling it a “voting revolution.”

Returning Officer and Thakurgaon District Election Officer Kamrul Islam declared him the winner at around 9:30 pm on Thursday, October 29. District election and administrative officials were present during the announcement of the results.

Mirza Faisal Amin, son of Mirza Ruhul Amin alias Chakha Razakar, who is number 710 on the list of war criminals, is the younger brother of current President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and is a candidate for the paddy sheaf.

Faisal received 227,789 votes. His nearest rival, Delwar Hossain of Jamaat-e-Islami, nominated by an 11-party alliance, received 96,453 votes.

Among other candidates, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Hafez Md. Khademul Islam (Hatapakha) received 3,288 votes. Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan’s Md. Abdul Alim Nizami (Bantagach) received 836 votes and Bangladesh Congress’s Hussain Muhammad Omar Farooq (Dub) received 449 votes.

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Janata Bank, which is reeling under the burden of defaulted loans, waives off Tk 22 crore of President Fakhrul’s brother’s company

Janata Bank is struggling with a default loan of around 71,000 crore taka. The state-owned institution is facing a crisis of existence as 73.18 percent of its total loans are defaulted. In such a situation, the corporate branch of Janata Bank has waived interest of around 22.5 crore taka on a defaulted loan of 44 crore taka.

The bank has settled the file with unusual speed within a week of the application for interest waiver. The person who hastily received such benefits from the state-owned bank is Mirza Fakhrul’s brother Mirza Faisal Amin. He is the younger brother of Thakurgaon district BNP president and party central secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

They took this facility claiming to be deprived of business during the Awami League era. But in reality, they took out a loan facility of about 110 million taka during the Awami League era.

Analyzing the documents, it can be seen that Janata Bank first gave a loan to Mirza Faisal-owned Nischintapur Agro Industries Limited 20 years ago. Although it could not repay that loan, the company was given another loan during the previous Awami League government. After that, Nischintapur Agro Industries was completely closed for 17 years. But after the change of heart on August 5, 2024, Nischintapur Agro came into the discussion again. Within a short time, the company also took advantage of a huge interest waiver.

Meanwhile, to create the context for the interest waiver, Shintepur Agro deposited about 1.5 crore taka in several installments in the bank in November last year. Questions have also been raised about how an institution that had been closed for 17 years suddenly came into possession of so much cash.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was appointed as the State Minister for Agriculture at the beginning of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government in 2001. During that period, his younger brother Mirza Faisal Amin established the agriculture-based Nischintapur Agro Industries Limited. Faisal is the managing director of the company.

The investigation revealed that Janata Bank approved a project loan of Tk 10.97 crore to Nishchintapur on September 23, 2006, just a month before the end of the term of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government. There are allegations that political influence was used in approving this loan. At the time of approval of the loan, Muhd. Fazlur Rahman was the director of the board of directors of Janata Bank (2001-06). Now, at the time of the loan waiver of Tk 22 crore, he is the chairman of the board of directors of Janata Bank.

Although it started during the BNP era, after the Awami League came to power in 2008, Nishchintapur Agro has been receiving various benefits from Janata Bank without any hesitation. In 2010, Janata Bank provided additional facilities to the company to repay the installments through loan rescheduling. Even at that time, Mirza Faisal’s company was given another loan of about 11 crores under a special arrangement to start the business. The company has been closed since receiving this new money. But in the past 17 years, it has not taken any initiative to repay the loan. There has been no activity on the part of Janata Bank in this regard either.

Despite rescheduling loans and taking out new loans during the Awami League government, Nishchintapur Agro has made new demands after the August 5 change of heart. The company claims that they have not been able to do business since 2007 due to political unrest.

Information from Janata Bank says that despite not being heard from for 17 years, Mirza Faisal became active after August 5. He made two applications on November 9 and 27, 2025, requesting a waiver of interest.

In the application, the top leader of Thakurgaon district BNP claimed that after the 2007 change of heart, he and his organization fell under the wrath of the fascist government due to their political affiliation. As a result, they suffered severe losses in business and could not conduct normal transactions with banks. He also claimed that his organization was also facing losses due to lack of electricity connection and a drop in fertilizer prices.

However, Janata Bank’s own inspection report found that the Nishchintapur factory has been completely closed for 17 years (dead project).

The truth of the bank’s report was confirmed by visiting the Nischintapur Agro factory. On Sunday afternoon, February 8, when visiting the Dodapara area of ​​Jagannathpur in Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila, it was learned that this factory has been closed since 2011. The factory, which was started with the aim of producing mixed fertilizer, once employed 20-30 workers. But the factory’s production stopped due to lack of sales of fertilizer. Since then, this establishment has been useless.

When we tried to talk to the residents around the factory, they refused. The security guards did not allow us to enter the factory, which is surrounded by barbed wire. They even forbade us from taking pictures.

Due to the factory being closed for 17 years, Nishchintapur Agro has not had any transactions with Janata Bank for this long time. But on November 9 last year, Mirza Faisal Amin submitted the first application for interest waiver. Since that day, the company has deposited Tk 1.4 crore in the bank in several installments.

The documents reveal that on the day of submitting the first application on November 9, Nishchintapur Agro paid Tk 56 lakh and Tk 33 lakh 99 thousand in two separate installments. Another Tk 50 lakh was paid in the next few days. Then on November 27, Mirza Faisal filed a second application for loan waiver.

Janata Bank decided to approve the application within just a week of Mirza Faisal Amin’s submission. After reviewing their information, it was found that the total amount of debt of Nishchintapur Agro was 44 crore 94 lakh taka. Against this, the bank authorities decided to waive the remaining 22 crore 58 lakh taka, or about 50 percent of the total debt, setting a target of recovering only 22 crore 36 lakh taka. Out of this, the amount of waived interest is 6 crore 52 lakh taka, uncharged general interest is 1 crore taka and uncharged penalty interest is 2 crore taka. In total, a total of 22 crore 58 lakh taka was proposed to be waived.

At the same time, it was proposed to display Nishchintapur as ‘SMA’ (not officially defaulted, but risky) in the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) report to provide special benefits to Nishchintapur, which has been in default for more than a decade and a half.

According to bankers, such a classification is against the prevailing banking policies and tends to hide financial risks. But when these proposals were presented at the 866th meeting of the Board of Directors of Janata Bank on December 2, 2025, they were approved.

Janata Bank is in crisis
According to the latest information from Bangladesh Bank, Janata Bank is already hostage to various institutions of an influential group. About 54 thousand crore taka is stuck with the top 9 business groups including Anontex, Bismillah, Beximco, S Alam. As of September last year, the amount of defaulted loans of Janata Bank was 70 thousand 671 crore taka. The total loan is 96 thousand 565 crore taka. That is, the default rate of Janata Bank is 73.18 percent. On the other hand, the security reserve (provision) deficit in the deposit account is 48 thousand 31 crore taka.

A senior banker, who did not want to be named, analyzed the statistics and said that a troubled bank like Janata Bank cannot take such a decision to waive off loans while it is in a liquidity crisis. Relaxing the lending criteria due to political affiliation and giving wrong information to the CIB is a serious crime. This is giving the wrong message to customers who regularly repay loans. At the same time, it has weakened the bank’s capital base in the long run. The banker also called the matter of taking advantage of the political situation by not giving any money to the bank for a long time a legal malpractice.

In this regard, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said, “There are specific policies regarding waiver. It does not depend on Bangladesh Bank. Any bank can waive the loan of any customer if it wants. Those related to that bank can say well in what context this waiver was made. If the policies are followed, Bangladesh Bank has nothing to say.”

Commenting on the instructions to give much more concessions than this, Janata Bank Managing Director Md. Mujibur Rahman said, ‘Bangladesh Bank has issued a circular to settle the non-performing loans quickly. The work has been done with the permission of Bangladesh Bank in accordance with this circular and all the policies. No political influence has been taken into consideration here. Bangladesh Bank has given instructions to recover the loans even though they are given much more concessions than this.’

When contacted to talk about this, Mirza Faisal Amin claimed that he did not get any loan during the previous BNP or the subsequent Awami League government. The loan he got was during the caretaker government. He recently applied for interest waiver as he could not do business during the Awami League. Bangladesh Bank took note of it and allowed the interest waiver and Janata Bank finalized it.