Yunus discussed the deployment of Bangladeshi troops with Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs
Bangladesh is planning to send hundreds of soldiers to work for the Qatar Armed Forces, a government spokesperson said, following this week’s talks between the Qatari leadership and the head of the Bangladeshi interim government.
Bangladesh’s chief adviser, Prof. Mohammed Yunus, was in Doha from Monday to Friday to attend the Earthna Summit organized by the Qatar Foundation. On the sidelines of the summit, the Nobel-winning economist also held meetings with top Qatari officials.
Yunus discussed the deployment of Bangladeshi troops with Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs.
“An agreement was reached to send 725 members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces on deputation to work with the Qatar Armed Forces,” Azad Majumder, deputy press secretary to the chief adviser, told Arab News on Friday.
“During the discussion, our National Security Adviser Dr. Khalilur Rahman was also present. So, all our topmost responsible authorities held this discussion with Qatari authorities.”
As the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Yunus also oversees its defense portfolio. His caretaker administration assumed office in August last year, when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country amid violent protests.
Talks between the Bangladeshi and Qatari armed forces will determine the structure of the team that will be dispatched from Bangladesh and identify areas where Qatar requires its expertise.
“It could be in sectors such as medical, infantry, engineering, etc. The details are still being worked out,” Majumder said.
“This is not a tough job for us, as Bangladesh already has this experience. For many years, Bangladesh has been sending soldiers to different UN missions. Bangladeshi armed forces members have also been serving in Kuwait for many years.”
Bangladeshi soldiers are known for contributing to UN peacekeeping missions, with more than 6,300 personnel currently deployed to 10 such operations worldwide.
Beyond these commitments, Bangladesh also engages non-UN international deployments, with its most prominent military presence being in Kuwait.
About 6,000 members of the Bangladesh Military Contingent are currently enlisted with the Kuwait Armed Forces, according to data from the Bangladeshi embassy in the Gulf state.
Kuwait has been recruiting soldiers from Bangladesh under a bilateral agreement with the Bangladeshi government since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
Initially, they were deployed to conduct extensive land mine clearance operations, but their responsibilities have expanded over the years to include engineering, construction, medical support and logistical assistance.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the largest minority group in the country, on Sunday issued a statement strongly condemning recent incidents of communal violence across the country.
These include the murder of Bhavesh Chandra Roy in Biral, Dinajpur; the forced resignation of school headmaster Kantilal Acharya in Sitakunda, Chattogram; and the rape of a Marma girl in Kaukhali, Rangamati, the statement said.
The statement also mentioned that in March, around fifty violent incidents took place across the country.
“These include murder, rape, attacks on temples, arrests on charges of religious defamation, attacks on indigenous people, and looting of homes and businesses”, the statement said.
The council leaders, Ushatan Talukder, Nim Chandra Bhowmik, Nirmal Rozario, and Acting General Secretary Monindra Kumar Nath, said these events are increasing fear and worry among minority communities during this period of unrest and communal tension.
They demanded the immediate arrest of the criminals and strict punishment under the law.
According to the reports, the postmortem of Hindu community leader Bhavesh Chandra Roy, who was allegedly abducted from his home and beaten to death earlier this week in Dinajpur district’s Biral upazila, has been completed, police confirmed on Saturday.
According to earlier reports, Bhavesh had received a phone call around 4:30 pm on Wednesday. His wife, Shantana Roy, told the local media outlet The Daily Star that the call was allegedly made by the perpetrators to confirm his presence at home. About 30 minutes later, four men arrived on two motorcycles and forcibly took him from the premises.
Eyewitnesses said Bhavesh was taken to Narabari village, where he was brutally assaulted. Later that evening, the attackers reportedly returned his unconscious body to the family in a van.
Notably, the situation for minorities and Hindus in Bangladesh continues to deteriorate, after Bangladesh’s dramatic leadership change last August, when mass protests led by a wide-ranging coalition of student groups, civil society activists, and radical Islamists forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
