Indian journalist's claims that Nasimul Ghani, Senior Secretary to the Home Ministry, is affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir are baseless and false, the Chief Adviser’s press wing has clarified.
The clarification comes in response to a report by Indian journalist Palki Sharma on the YouTube channel of Firstpost and the news portal BDDiGEST, which alleged that Nasimul Ghani was a founder of the banned Islamist group.
The report cited a 2008 Daily Star article titled "Hizb ut-Tahrir Leaders Held Over Militancy" as evidence.
But the fact-checking unit of the Chief Adviser’s press wing confirmed that the individual mentioned in the report, Nasim Gani, is a British citizen and entirely unrelated to Nasimul Ghani, the senior Bangladeshi bureaucrat.
Nasimul Ghani, who joined Bangladesh's civil service in 1983 after an exemplary academic career, is a Bangladeshi citizen with no dual residency or foreign passport.
He has held various government positions, including Secretary to the Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, and underwent top management training at the University of Bradford in the UK in 2008.
The press wing said that Nasimul Ghani has never been affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir or any political party, even during his student years.
Hizb ut-Tahrir remains a banned organisation in Bangladesh, and the government has no intention of lifting the ban.
The report has been described as a malicious attempt to spread disinformation about Bangladesh, orchestrated by Indian outlets and individuals linked to the ousted regime of Sheikh Hasina.