Journalist AAM Saleh, widely known as Saleh Shibly and a former General Secretary of the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU), has been appointed Press Secretary to BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman.
The appointment was announced on Saturday through a press release signed by BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
Meanwhile, ABM Abdus Sattar, former Bangladesh government secretary, has been appointed as the private secretary to the BNP Acting Chairman.
Saleh Shibly has long been handling key press and administrative responsibilities under Tarique Rahman. He was made the chief of a BNP press coordination team formed on November 1 last year.
He began his journalism career as a campus reporter for the Daily Banglabazar while studying at Dhaka University. Although he joined journalism as a profession during his student life, he studied Public Administration at Dhaka University and completed his Master’s degree in the subject.
Over the years, he gained experience across different branches of the media, working with private news agency United News of Bangladesh (UNB), the Daily Manab Zamin, Radio Today and Channel i.
During the tenure of the four-party alliance government, he served as First Secretary (Press) at the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, India.
Several of his articles on women’s empowerment in Bangladesh were published in Asian Bridge, a magazine published by the Japan-based Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW).
During his stay abroad, he worked as Executive Editor of London-based Bengali-language television channel Channel S. At the same time, he earned a PhD degree focusing on media and public administration.
Shibly also served as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Australia-based political research organisation, the Sydney Policy and Analysis Centre (SPAC).
He returned to Bangladesh on December 25 on the same flight as Tarique Rahman from the United Kingdom.
Saleh Shibly is the author of the book ‘Tarique Rahmaner Nishiddha Bhashan’ (The Forbidden Speeches of Tarique Rahman).
He was also made a member of the BNP’s central election steering committee for the 13th parliamentary election.