Bangladesh’s national security chief has been ousted, officials said on Monday, amid sweeping political changes following the imposition of a state of emergency and the cancellation of elections. “Major General Rezakul Haider Chowdhury has been sent to retirement after he was removed as the director general of National Security Intelligence,” an armed forces spokesman told AFP. No reason for the sacking was given, although Chowdhury was widely seen as close to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which governed the country until last October and is accused of having attempted to rig elections. President Iajuddin Ahmed was said to be under pressure from his own party, the BNP, to bow out of politics.
Ahmed headed the first interim government after the two feuding political parties failed to agree on a mutually acceptable candidate for the post. Although he stepped down as head of the temporary authority on Thursday, he continued as the country’s mostly ceremonial president. “There is pressure on him (to resign). The BNP are looking to see him go,” said senior Awami League official Saber Hossain Chowdhury. “I think they feel that the new caretaker government is going to take more of a non-party role than in the past and they want someone who can counter that.”Officials at the president’s office declined to comment. Besides Chowdhury, Power Ministry Secretary ANH Akhter Hossain, another powerful figure close to the BNP, was sacked, the government’s press information department said in a statement.