Abdul Mannan, the former Managing Director of Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC, alleged that he was coerced into signing a resignation letter.
“The bank had never used this particular type of pad since its inception in 1983,” Abdul Mannan said.
The former Islamic Bank MD said this at a webinar titled 'Eliminating Dominance in the Banking Sector" organised by the forum for Bangladesh studies on Friday. Journalist Monir Haider moderated the webinar.
The controversial Chattogram-based business group — S Alam Group — owned by Md Saiful Alam Masud, seized the bank on January 5, 2017.
“Early that morning, several officials from the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) took me and other vice chairmen of the bank and forced us to sign resignation letters,” the former MD said.
Abdul Mannan added, “On that day [January 5, 2017], the officials of Bangladesh Bank worked until late at night. They worked to complete the process of changing the bank's ownership that very day. How can such things happen in a country's banking sector, which is the lifeblood of a nation's economy?”
He further added, “In the following years, Bangladesh Bank changed many of their decisions (for the S Alam Group) at their behest. Action should be taken against such incidents so that no one dares to do such things in the future.”
After seven and a half years Abdul Mannan has returned to Bangladesh. By this time many journalists tried to reach him but he refused to talk.
"The reason is I didn't feel safe. I was living in fear. I didn't think I would be able to breathe freely again in Bangladesh. I now feel that have gained the freedom of speech. However, I think it will take time for that fear to go away. I think it will take more time to breathe freely in open air," Abdul Mannan said.
Badiul Alam Majumdar is secretary of SHUJAN; Mamun Rashid, chairman of Financial Excellence Limited; Professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir of the Development Studies department at Dhaka University, and Manarat International University Adjunct Professor Md Mizanur Rahman also speaks at the webinar.
