Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Abdul Mannan, former managing director of Islami Bank, has claimed that he was forced to resign from his post at the bank on 5 January 2017.
S Alam Group had forced Mannan to resign from his post at the Shariah-based bank after he was taken hostage by members of a security agency, local media reported.
"I was forced to resign on a pad that the Islami Bank has never used since its inception in 1983 till date," the former MD told a webinar on 'Elimination of Occupancy in the Banking Sector: Will the Plight End?', organized by the Forum for Bangladesh Studies on Friday.
Commemorating the deaths in the recent student-led mass uprising that ousted the Awami League government on 5 August, he said, "Now I think I have freedom of expression. Earlier, I did not have the courage to speak even while staying abroad."
Mr Mannan said the day he was taken hostage and forced to resign at gunpoint, many top officials of the central bank had stayed in their offices until late at night to accept his resignation.
After taking control of the board by removal of Mannan and other top executives, the Chattogram-based conglomerate, owned by Mohammad Saiful Alam, and its associated companies took loans of Tk74,900 crore from the bank, which is nearly half of of Islami Bank's total outstanding loans as of March this year, according to the documents of the bank.
Having returned to the country after seven and a half years, Mannan said, "While abroad, some journalists from Bangladesh tried to contact me, but I didn't speak because I didn't feel safe. I lived in constant fear. I never thought I'd be able to breathe freely again in Bangladesh."
Among others, Mamun Rashid, chairman of Financial Excellence Ltd and Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, professor of development studies at the University of Dhaka also spoke on the occasion.
BBN/SSR/AD