Dhaka, September 2025 — A delegation of seven influential Bangladeshi Islamic clerics has traveled to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, raising concern among analysts that the trip could strengthen extremist ideology at home and deepen ties between Dhaka’s religious leaders and Kabul’s isolated regime.
The team, led by Khelafat Majlis chief Maulana Mamunul Haque, arrived in Kabul on September 17 at the invitation of the Taliban government. Among the members were Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh’s deputy leader and Pir of Madhupur Maulana Abdul Hamid, along with Maulana Abdul Awal, Maulana Abdul Haque, Habibullah Mahmud Qasemi, Maulana Monir Hossain Qasemi and Maulana Mahbubur Rahman.
Taliban meetings and stated objectives
According to Khelafat Majlis, the clerics are scheduled to meet Afghanistan’s chief justice, senior ministers, top scholars and high-ranking officials of the Taliban administration. The group said it will also observe the country’s human rights and women’s rights situation in response to Western criticism. Discussions on expanding bilateral cooperation in education, health and trade are included in the agenda.
Party leaders have framed the trip as a purely religious mission. “It is just a spiritual visit of scholars, not a political objective,” said Khelafat Majlis Secretary General Maulana Jalaluddin Ahmed, while acknowledging that Mamunul Haque holds “a dual role — both as a leading scholar and as a political party chief.”
Still, the organization’s own press statement described the trip as a kind of diplomatic mission, stressing efforts to “strengthen ties between scholars of both countries, enhance cooperation in trade and education, and examine whether Western criticism of Afghanistan’s human and women’s rights is accurate.”
Party officials said the clerics intend to assess whether keeping women at home equates to depriving them of rights, and whether Western views on the Taliban are justified. Observers warn that such positioning could be used to undermine criticism of the Taliban’s rule.
Symbolic timing at home
The visit coincided with large street protests staged by Khelafat Majlis in Bangladesh. On September 18, while Mamunul Haque was meeting Taliban officials in Kabul, his party organized a massive rally in Dhaka demanding implementation of the “July Charter,” constitutional reforms and Islamic governance.
“This timing is very significant,” one Dhaka-based political analyst told the BBC. “When he is abroad, his party is on the streets at home — this is not pilgrimage but political theater, and an indication of possible political coordination.”
Khelafat Majlis leaders deny any political collusion with the Taliban, but analysts see the trip as a public show of solidarity with Kabul and an implicit nod to aspirations for Taliban-style rule inside Bangladesh.
A history of jihadist links
Bangladesh’s connection to Afghanistan’s jihad runs deep. In the 1980s, many Bangladeshi youths traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to join the fight against Soviet troops. Many returned to form militant outfits such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), which launched terrorist campaigns in the 1990s to try to build a Sharia-based state.
Bangladeshi clerics also sent a delegation to Afghanistan during the Taliban’s first regime in 2001. According to local media, none of those clerics are alive today. But when the Taliban retook Kabul in 2021, hardline groups in Bangladesh celebrated openly.
That same year, Dhaka Metropolitan Police reported that detained Hefazat leaders admitted under interrogation that they had planned to overthrow Sheikh Hasina’s secular government and establish Taliban-style Islamic rule with foreign support, including alleged links to Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Taliban’s 2021 return emboldened Bangladeshi extremists, many of whom used social media to call for a “struggle like the Afghan Taliban to oust the murtad (apostate) government.”
Analysts, including Dr. Ali Riaz — now vice chairman of the National Consensus Commission under Muhammad Yunus’s interim government — warned at the time that the Taliban’s victory would inspire ideological followers across South Asia (news.illinoisstate.edu). Ironically, the same Riaz who once cautioned about Taliban influence now serves in an interim government where Islamist groups wield significant sway.
Concerns of resurgence under interim rule
Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in August 2024, observers say criticism of Islamist militancy has disappeared, and the interim administration has shown a more conciliatory stance.
Under the new government — headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus with full backing of Army Chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman — Islamist parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam have resurged.
Bans on Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were lifted, allowing them to hold rallies, reestablish influence in universities and prepare for elections. On July 19, 2025, Jamaat staged a massive rally in Dhaka.
Dozens of imprisoned clerics, including Mamunul Haque, were released on bail or acquitted. Mamunul was even cleared in a rape case tied to Hefazat violence in 2021. Meanwhile, figures with Islamist backgrounds have been appointed to senior government posts, including Home Secretary Md. Nasimul Gani, once a founding member of banned Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Islamists are now pressing for implementation of the “July Charter,” which calls for banning secular politics, embedding Islamic education in primary schools, and reconsidering secular principles in the constitution.
At a September 18 rally, Khelafat Majlis Secretary General Ahmad Abdul Kader accused the government of appointing music and fine arts teachers to primary schools while ignoring long-standing demands for religious teachers.
Regional and international dimensions
Security experts warn that the clerics’ visit could reinvigorate extremist groups inside Bangladesh. Reports in The Diplomat have alleged that influential quarters within the interim government have facilitated or ignored the release of militant suspects. Analysts fear that extremism is now embedding itself into mainstream politics rather than relying on direct terrorist attacks.
BBC analysis suggests extremists are shifting to forming parties and contesting elections, while recent arrests of Bangladeshi militants with links to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda highlight deepening ideological bonds across the region.
International reaction has been mixed. Indian security experts see the Islamist resurgence as a direct threat to India-Bangladesh stability. Western human rights groups fear the optics of Bangladeshi clerics embracing Kabul will normalize Taliban rule and embolden local militants.
A January 2025 report by the International Center for Peace Studies said Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI held a secret meeting in Dhaka to coordinate networks of Taliban-aligned groups, underscoring the geopolitical stakes (icpsnet.org).
A shifting balance
Observers say Bangladesh’s army-backed coup and the Taliban’s return in Afghanistan are both being celebrated by extremists as ideological wins. They warn that Mamunul Haque’s Kabul visit is not simply a religious excursion but part of a broader political project, one that could further destabilize Bangladesh’s already fragile political landscape.
