New Delhi: Days after a new government was sworn-in in Bangladesh, the country’s president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, has accused former chief adviser and the nation’s interim head Mohammad Yunus of sidelining him and even “conspiring” to remove him from office in an unconstitutional manner.
He also targeted leaders of the student-led uprising against the previous Hasina dispensation, alleging that the siege of the presidential house or Bongobhaban in October 2024 was a calculated move.
Shahabuddin made the charges in an interview to the Bengali newspaper Kaler Kantho Monday.
Shahabuddin said he had virtually no communication with Yunus during the interim government’s 18-month tenure and accused him of marginalising the presidency. He further described the period following the July 2024 student uprising as a time of “various conspiracies” aimed at creating “a constitutional vacuum” and permanently destabilising Bangladesh.
The president said that although he had initiated the constitutional process that led to Yunus’s appointment as chief adviser, the relationship later deteriorated.
“The chief adviser did not coordinate with me in that way later. There is really no way to explain it. Because he never came to me. Tried to hide me completely.”
Asked whether he had been informed about Bangladesh’s reported tariff agreement with the US before the national elections, Shahabuddin responded bluntly: “No, I don’t know anything. Such a state agreement should have been communicated to me.” Previous heads of government, he added, had fulfilled that obligation. “But he (Yunus) didn’t do that. Neither verbally nor in writing.”
Bangladesh’s president further alleged that the interim administration blocked his foreign travel twice. One was a planned visit to Kosovo last December, where he said he had been invited to deliver a keynote address, and the other an invitation from the Emir of Qatar to attend a summit.
He further said Yunus failed to observe constitutional provisions requiring post-trip briefings to the president.
“It is said in the constitution, whenever he goes on a foreign trip, he will meet the president after returning and tell me the output—what was discussed, whether there was any agreement,” Shahabuddin said. Yunus, he noted, travelled abroad “14 to 15 times” and “never told me. He never came to me”.
This is not the first time Shahabuddin has made allegations against the former chief adviser.
In a December 2025 interview to Reuters, he said he intended to step down midway through his term after February’s parliamentary elections, citing “humiliation” and marginalisation under the Yunus government.
He said Yunus had not met him for nearly seven months, his press department had been taken away and his official portraits were removed from Bangladesh’s embassies abroad.
The presidency in Bangladesh is largely ceremonial, with executive authority vested in the prime minister and cabinet. The office, however, assumed unusual importance after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi in August 2024 amid a student-led uprising that dissolved Parliament, leaving Shahabuddin as the sole constitutional authority.
Shahabuddin was elected unopposed in 2023 as a nominee of Hasina’s Awami League, which was later barred from contesting the polls this month.
‘Interim govt conspired’
Shahabuddin told Kaler Kantho that repeated unconstitutional attempts were made to remove him from the president’s post.
“During those one-and-a-half years, I have not been part of any discussion, yet various conspiracies were being hatched against me,” he said, adding that there were “many attempts to permanently destroy the peace and order of the country and create a constitutional vacuum”.
Asked whether those efforts succeeded, he said: “I was steadfast in my decision. That is why no conspiracy succeeded. Especially the numerous plots to overthrow the president through unconstitutional means have failed.”
Shahabuddin, who administered the oath of office to Yunus after the fall of the Awami League government, painted a vivid picture of the protests against him that he described as “terrifying”.
He recalled that on 22 October, 2024, Bangabhaban was surrounded. “This and that party, the stage, the unity—what a lot! Created overnight!” he said. “These are the same type of people, all in different forums, under different names. Where did they get so much money?”
Demonstrators had at the time attempted to breach the presidential palace, calling for the resignation of Shahabuddin over his remarks to the Bangla daily Manab Zamin. The president had then said he had no documentary evidence that Hasina had formally resigned before fleeing the country on 5 August, 2024.
According to Shahabuddin, the army provided him three-tier security then. “That night was terrifying for me,” he added. “Like Ganabhaban (prime minister’s residence), they wanted to loot Bangabhaban. We were at home. We have nothing else, I won’t run away from here, right?”
He said he remained resolute. “I said, if my blood is shed in Bangabhaban, let it be shed. I will join history like others. But I will protect constitutional continuity—I was steadfast in this decision.”
Shahabuddin then went on to directly accuse the interim government of attempting to replace him with a former chief justice.
“Today, I have no hesitation in saying that the interim government has conspired to bring in a former chief justice and replace me in an unconstitutional manner,” he told the paper.
According to the president, the former chief adviser held an hour-long meeting with the judge, who refused. “He clearly said, ‘he is the president, he is above everyone constitutionally, above everything. I cannot sit in that place unconstitutionally.”
Shahabuddin said he learned of these efforts through his connections in the judiciary.
‘BNP & army stood by’
Throughout the interview, the Bangladesh president repeatedly credited the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) with defending him.
He said the “top leadership of BNP was by my side”, singling out its chairman, Tarique Rahman, now the prime minister.
“We want to maintain constitutional continuity. We are not in favour of removing the president through any unconstitutional means,” Shahabuddin quoted a senior BNP leader as telling him, adding: “BNP’s cooperation was 100 percent during my difficult time.”
He also praised the armed forces for providing protection to him.
“Your Excellency, you are the head of the armed forces. Your defeat means the defeat of the entire armed forces. We will prevent this at any cost,” he recalled being told. The chiefs of the three services, he said, made clear they would not allow “any unconstitutional activities to take place”.
At one point, he added, the effort to remove him appeared close to success but eventually the plan “went silent on its own”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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