TDS Desk:

The resignation letter was on a letterhead that had never been used by Islami Bank since its founding in 1983, he told a webinar organised by the Forum for Bangladesh Studies on Friday.

All this took place at the office of a security agency in Dhaka city on January 5, 2017, when S. Alam Group took control of Islami Bank, Mr Mannan said.

Officers from that security agency detained him from his home and took him to their office. The bank’s chairman and vice-chairman were also picked up from their homes and forced to resign, he said.

Mr Mannan added that Bangladesh Bank officials worked late into the night on that day to expedite the change of ownership.

Since the change of ownership, many of the bank’s decisions were altered under pressure from the S. Alam Group, he said.

The former Islami Bank MD, who recently returned home after seven and a half years, said, “I never thought I would breathe freely again after returning to Bangladesh.

“I did not speak to journalists while abroad because I did not feel safe,” he added.

Badiul Alam Majumder, another speaker at the webinar, blamed “rotten and corrupt politics” behind the Chittagong-based business conglomerate’s takeover of Islami Bank.

“Instead of serving the public interest, politics is working for the benefit of certain groups,” he said, also alleging that a former head of state had directly instructed the takeover.

Financial Excellence Chairman Mamun Rashid; Dhaka University Professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir and Manarat International University Adjunct Professor Md. Mizanur Rahman also spoke at the webinar.