Journalist linked student leaders to Muhammad Yunus during Bangladesh transition

Shafiqul Alam, the former press secretary to Muhammad Yunus, has claimed that an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist played a critical role in facilitating communication between student leaders and the Nobel laureate during the 2024 political upheaval in Bangladesh.

According to Alam, Qadaruddin Shishir, who was then the editor of AFP’s Dhaka fact-check team, acted as a confidential bridge-builder. This contact reportedly occurred just two days before the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024. The student leaders sought a way to invite Yunus to lead an interim government in a post-Hasina scenario.

Alam noted that the communication was conducted with extreme secrecy to avoid detection by the then-active intelligence apparatus of the Hasina administration. He suggested that if the government had discovered these back-channel negotiations, the journalists involved could have faced severe consequences, including detention at Ayna Ghar, a site allegedly used for illegal detention and torture during the previous regime.