Nothing secret about it: Jamaat chief on meeting with Indian diplomats

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman has hit out at reports that he held a “secret meeting” with Indian diplomats, saying there was “nothing confidential” about the contact.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Shafiqur said he met two Indian diplomats around the middle of last year. The meeting was not disclosed at the time at their request, he added, insisting that there was no secrecy involved.

His comments follow a Reuters report published on Wednesday, based on an interview with Shafiqur, which said that the Islamist party was open to joining a consensus government.

The Reuters report said the interview took place at Shafiqur's residence, days after the party made waves by securing an alliance with the youth-led National Citizen Party (NCP). It also mentioned his meeting with Indian diplomats, and was published on the same day that India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was in Dhaka to pay his respects to former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

In his Facebook post, the Jamaat chief explained how the subject of India arose during the Reuters interview.

“In an interview I gave to Reuters yesterday, a journalist asked me if I had any discussions or meetings with officials from neighbouring India. I said that around the middle of last year, after I fell ill and returned home following treatment, many from home and abroad came to visit me.”

He said that after returning home following medical treatment last year, diplomats from a number of countries visited him, including two from India.

“We told them that meetings with diplomats are usually made public and that we wanted to do the same in this case. They requested that it not be publicised. We agreed. There is nothing secret about it.”

Expressing his astonishment, the Jamaat chief wrote: “Some of our local media have reported that a secret meeting took place between the Jamaat Ameer and India. I strongly condemn such reports.”

Shafiqur expressed surprise that some local media outlets described the meeting as a secret one, saying he “strongly condemns” such reporting. He urged journalists to avoid what he called misleading reports without verifying the facts.

In its report, Reuters said New Delhi was seeking to expand engagement with potential political parties in Bangladesh’s next government, adding that an Indian diplomat met Shafiqur earlier this year following his bypass surgery.

“Unlike diplomats from other countries who made open courtesy visits to him, the Indian official asked that the meeting remain confidential,” Reuters wrote, citing Shafiqur.

“We must become open to all and open to each other. There is no alternative to developing our relationship," the Jamaat chief told Reuters.