Six top officials of Bangladesh Bank (BB), including four deputy governors, were forced to resign on Wednesday amid unrest created by a group of aggrieved officials of the central bank.
The agitators demanded the resignation of the governor, deputy governors, and the banking adviser who were serving contractually.
Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder is not attending the office since the President of the country dissolved the parliament following the resignation of Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
However, the central bank officially stated that the interim government upon its formation will take necessary decisions on their resignation. The six officials left their office with army protection to avert any untoward incident.
The aggrieved officials of the central bank without any banner stormed into the governor’s floor at the BB headquarters on Wednesday morning and raised voice against the high officials for facilitating irregularities and embezzlement of public funds in the country’s banking sector.
They entered the room of Deputy Governor-1 Kazi Sayedur Rahman and forced him to resign in a white paper, followed by the room of Deputy Governor-2 Nurun Nahar, who assured them that she would step down.
The protestors then went to the room of Deputy Governor-3 Md. Khurshid Alam, Deputy Governor-4 Dr. Md. Habibur Rahman, Policy Adviser Abu Farah Md Naser and Head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Md Masud Biswas, but did not find them in their rooms.
BB sources said all of them were present but left immediately sensing trouble.
Later, the agitating officials communicated with them through telephone and told them that they should not join the office again.
Soon after the protest, BB spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque at a press briefing said some deputy governors decided to resign amid protests. Some were forced to resign.
He said the interim government, which is in the process of formation, will decide on the resignations of the deputy governors, policy adviser and BFIU head because they are contractually appointed by the government.
“We’ll place the issue to the interim government soon after it is formed and it will take the decision on the matter,” he added.
The BB sources said DG Nurun Nahar will remain in office for some time to give administrative approvals of regular activities like salaries and allowances, but will have to resign immediately after the new deputy governors are appointed.
The protests followed an incident on Tuesday last when several officials had been threatened with job termination by deputy governor Sayedur Rahman after they exposed irregularities by the central bank’s top officials on social media.
