Tarique Rahman in league with ISI?

BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, who has been in exile in London, maintains close connections with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), according to informed sources. It has been learnt a meeting was held between two top ISI officials and Tarique on July 4 in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Tarique maintains communications with the ISI through a Dubai-based BNP leader, who sent him a list of ISI-preferred candidates in 300 constituencies in the forthcoming election, the sources said.  It could not be possible to contact Tarique Rahman for his response to the allegations. However, UK BNP President MA Malek termed the report as a 'rumor'.

Tarique's connections with the ISI, say the sources, are an old phenomenon. Such allegations were also made against him during the BNP's tenure in power from 2001 to 2006. There have even been allegations that he has had a meeting with the fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. UAE BNP President Zakir Hossain is suspected to have been in contact with the ISI. He regularly holds meeting with ISI agent Shahid Mehmood.

He met the ISI official at least 11 times at different hotels in Dubai in the last six months, according to the records available. Zakir Hossain maintains contact with Tarique Rahman in London, according to intel sources. In meetings with the Pakistan agent, he termed Tarique as 'boss' and confirmed that ISI messages were sent to Tarique.

It has been learnt that ISI agent Shahid Mehmood, who stays in Dubai, is a retired lieutenant colonel of the Pakistan army. He was engaged in ISI till his retirement in 2004. He has been working as an ISI agent even after his retirement.

It is the ISI agent Shahid Mehmood whose phone conversation with BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain has recently been leaked. Mehmood is in regular contact with Javed Mehedi, an official at the ISI's policy-making level, and operates as an agent between him and BNP-Jamaat leaders.

Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told Bangla Tribune, "I have given a statement in this regard. The issue is false, fabricated and fake. I know no one named Shahid Mehmood. I didn't talk to anybody."About the BNP's top leaders' attempts to have the ISI play a role in Bangladesh's politics, Dr Mosharraf said, "I don't know anything about this."

It has been learnt from conversations between Zakir Hossain and Shahid Mehmood that Tarique Rahman held a meeting with a top ISI official and Javed Mehedi in Jeddah on July 4 this year. Earlier, a meeting was held in June this year between Shahid Mehmood and BNP leader Zakir Hossain.

At the meeting, Shahid Mehmood briefed Hossain about a forthcoming meeting, obviously a reference to the July meeting, between the ISI's 'number one policymaker' Javed Mehedi and Zakir Hossain's 'boss'. Shahid Mehmood asked Zakir Hossain to inform his 'boss' that the meeting had been fixed for the first week of July.

The sources note that it is clear from several telephonic conversations between Zakir Hossain and Shahid Mehmood that the meeting was held on July 4 in Jeddah. Zakir Hossain termed the meeting as 'successful'. The ISI reportedly handed over a list of its preferred candidates to Zakir Hossan, who confirmed that the list had been sent to Tarique Rahman.