Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin seems to be breathing free after 1.5 years. In an interview with Bangla daily Kaler Kontho, Shahabuddin ripped apart Muhammad Yunus, who led the interim administration in Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August 2024. The interview details how Yunus tried to get rid of the President, the last functioning person in a constitutional post.

Shahabuddin administered the oath of office to Yunus on August 8, 2024, and the latter functioned as the de facto prime minister till February 16, 2026.

He described in detail the night of October 22, 2024, when a mob surrounded Bangabhaban, the President’s residence, demanding his removal. “That night was terrifying for me,” he said.

Another interesting fact that Shahabuddin revealed in the exclusive interview with Kaler Kontho is that he got support from the leadership of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) when Yunus-aligned forces were trying to remove him.

“A high-ranking leader from the BNP assured me that I had their support. We want to maintain constitutional continuity. We are not in favour of removing the President through any unconstitutional means,” Shahabuddin told Kaler Kontho.

Shahabuddin said the Yunus regime tried to overthrow the president till the very last.

He also praised BNP chief and now Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, calling him a “very sincere person” and his behaviour as “cordial”.

This is interesting because there has been chatter that the BNP-led government could replace the President, who was an appointee of the earlier Sheikh Hasina government. Shahabuddin’s tenure as the president runs till April 2028. He will remain as the president if he enjoys the support of PM Tarique Rahman and his council of ministers.

Other than the BNP and its allies, Shahabuddin said he got unquestioned support from the heads of the three wings of the military.

“They said, ‘Your Excellency, you are the head of the armed forces. Your defeat means the defeat of the entire armed forces. We will prevent this at any cost’,” Shahabuddin quoted the service chiefs as saying.

The Bangladesh President hit out at the way Yunus functioned.

“The Chief Adviser did not follow any provision of the Constitution,” said Sahabuddin, explaining that he felt the ordinances passed by his interim regime weren’t required.

Shahabuddin continued to detail Yunus’s power trip, saying he disregarded the Constitution by not briefing the president about his foreign tours. “He must have gone on foreign trips 14 to 15 times. He never told me. He never came to me.”

On being asked by Kaler Kontho if he knew of the details of the Bangladesh-US trade deal, whose fine prints are protected by a non-disclosure agreement, the President said he was unaware of the nitty-gritty of the agreement.

“No, I do not know anything. Such a state agreement should have been informed to me. Be it small or big, of course the previous heads of government informed the President. And this is a constitutional obligation. But he [Yunus] did not do it,” said Sahabuddin.

Not just that, Shahabuddin said that Yunus prevented him from travelling abroad.

“He [Yunus] blocked my foreign trips twice. One was to Kosovo. The incident happened last December,” he said. In the other instance, upon an invitation from the Emir of Qatar, the ministry of foreign affairs drafted a letter of non-participation, saying he was busy.

Asked what he believed was the reason behind Yunus’s such action, Shahabuddin said, “Basically, that government did not want my name to come up anywhere. They tried to keep me completely in the dark. They did not want the people to recognise me.”

Shahabuddin had told news agency Reuters in December 2025 that he felt “sidelined” by the interim administration and would like to resign after the national election in February. He has now detailed why he felt so constricted as Yunus went about administering Bangladesh disregarding the Constitution. However, Shahabuddin’s claims of support from the BNP leadership during his worst phase hint that he might continue as the President for some more time at least.