Bangladesh bank confirms ouster of Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus

A Bangladesh bank on Saturday (Feb 17) confirmed that it had expelled Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus from the two businesses that he founded, following his conviction in a criminal case.

Eighty-three-year-old Yunus has been hailed for lifting millions of people out of poverty with his microlender Grameen Bank. However, he has earned the animosity of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who accused him of "sucking blood" from the poor.

The Hasina-led government propelled Yunus' resignation from the bank in the year 2011, following which he focused on running dozens of anti-poverty organisations that he founded.

The bank's current government-appointed chairman on Saturday (Feb 17) said that its board had nominated new directors for at least two firms that were still under Yunus' control.

"They don't own the enterprises," A.K.M Saiful Majid told reporters. "They are subsidiaries of the Grameen Bank."

Grameen Bank chief legal counsel Masud Akhter released a statement saying that Majid will now head Grameen Telecom and Grameen Kalyan.

Grameen Telecom, which was created to offer cheaper mobile phone services in rural areas, has over the years become one of Bangladesh's richest companies.

It holds a 34 per cent stake in the country's largest mobile phone network, worth billions of dollars.

Earlier, on Thursday (Feb 15), Yunus during a press briefing said that a group of "outsiders" this week entered the building which houses his firms and made attempts to "forcefully" take over the offices and lock the staff out.

He said there was no legal basis for his expulsion but that police had denied registering a criminal complaint.

Majid rejected the claim about the seizure being illegal or a forceful one.

Yunus' popularity among the Bangladeshi public has for years reserved him as a potential rival to Hasina, who secured a fifth term in office in January 2024 after an election boycotted by opposition parties.

(With inputs from agencies)