investigation OF Al jajira Bangoli

Protection for Sheikh Hasina

The Ahmed clan’s fortunes have been long intertwined with that of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Haris and Anis were Hasina’s bodyguards when her life was threatened during the time she was an opposition politician, and leader of the Awami League, in the 1980s and 1990s.

In a phone recording obtained by Al Jazeera, General Ahmed recounts how Hasina defended the brothers to critical party officials.

“Look, you don’t know better than me who his brothers are. Where were you all… when grenades were thrown in my house?” the general recalled Hasina saying to the critics.

“These things were happening to my house. Where were you? This chief’s brothers (General Aziz Ahmed) were all around me. They were my mainstay.”

Five brothers

In total, the Ahmed clan consisted of five brothers, four of whom ended up in the criminal underworld.

Josef Ahmed, deemed one of the most dangerous criminals in Bangladesh, was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 1996 murder.

However, he was released in May 2018 after a presidential pardon, with the backing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Weeks later, Hasina appointed General Aziz, Josef’s brother, as head of the Bangladesh army.

The fifth Ahmed brother, Tipu, was killed in a gangland shooting in 1999.

The Investigative Unit contacted all those involved in this investigation, including Bangladesh’s prime minister, home minister, inspector general, police commissioner and all four Ahmed brothers.

They were all invited to respond to the investigation’s findings before release. None did so.

After the release of the investigation, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement describing Al Jazeera’s findings as a “smear campaign” that was orchestrated by opponents of the regime based abroad.

It dismissed statements made by the brother of Bangladesh’s Chief of Army Staff as baseless and said Haris Ahmed had no links to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina or any other state institution.