547 sacked Al-Arafah Islami Bank staff accuse board of corruption
The group claimed that fair recruitment procedures had been abandoned under current chairman Khwaja Shahriar and executive committee chairman Abdul Wadud, with jobs allegedly sold through bribery and distributed through nepotism
A total of 547 former employees of Al-Arafah Islami Bank have accused the bank's current Board of Directors of corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement, calling for intervention by Bangladesh Bank to restore governance and reinstate their jobs.
At a press conference at the National Press Club yesterday, the terminated staff said the bank began dismissing them by email from 20 July, which led them to start protesting outside its head office from 28 July.
They alleged that on Thursday, security guards, acting on orders from bank authorities, baton-charged demonstrators, injuring at least 20 and causing one woman to faint.
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The group claimed that fair recruitment procedures had been abandoned under current chairman Khwaja Shahriar and executive committee chairman Abdul Wadud, with jobs allegedly sold through bribery and distributed through nepotism.
They alleged that many of the roughly 200 executives appointed over the past year had prior records of financial misconduct, causing losses and damaging the bank's reputation.
They also said mismanagement had led to the bank failing to maintain its Cash Reserve Ratio, resulting in a Tk19 crore fine, and a Tk100 crore drop in deposits within a week, raising concern among customers and depositors.
The dismissed employees urged the central bank to ensure transparent operations, reinstate their positions, and take steps to protect the bank's stability.
Notably, according to previous media reports, at least 15 people, including the bank's head of human resources, were injured on Thursday when sacked employees allegedly attacked executives outside the head office.
In a statement on Saturday, Al-Arafah Islami Bank said it had acted on audit findings by regulators and independent firms, arranging an evaluation for 1,414 officers through the University of Dhaka's Institute of Business Administration.
A total of 864 passed and were retained, while 547 failed and were released.
The bank alleged that protesters have blocked operations, harassed senior officials, and injured staff, and vowed to continue its reform programme in line with regulatory directives.
