Pakistan and Bangladesh on Friday, 8 May, signed what is effectively the first publicly acknowledged bilateral security cooperation framework between the two countries since the fall of Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
The agreement formalises intelligence-sharing and operational coordination mechanisms that analysts say could alter regional security dynamics in South Asia.
The agreement was signed in Dhaka between Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed and Pakistan Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi.
Officially described as an anti-narcotics and anti-trafficking pact, the MoU goes significantly beyond routine law-enforcement cooperation and includes intelligence-sharing, confidential information exchange, operational coordination, secure communication mechanisms and joint investigations between the two sides.
The agreement covers intelligence-sharing on trafficking networks, smuggling routes, organised crime syndicates and operational methods, besides provisions for controlled delivery operations, technical cooperation, training coordination and confidential exchange mechanisms between Bangladesh’s Department of Narcotics Control and Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force.
The development marks a major shift in Dhaka-Islamabad relations after the removal of Hasina in August 2024 in what was effectively a Washington-backed regime change operation and the political transition that followed in Bangladesh. No publicly documented bilateral intelligence-sharing or defence cooperation agreement of this scale between Bangladesh and Pakistan has previously surfaced in official records after Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
While military contacts and alleged informal intelligence interactions are believed to have existed intermittently during previous BNP and military-backed governments in Dhaka, especially during the 1980s and early 2000s, no publicly acknowledged institutionalised bilateral security framework of this scope had emerged between the two countries.
The strategic significance of the latest agreement becomes sharper in light of a 28 December 2025 report published by The Sunday Guardian, which had reported months earlier that Bangladesh and Pakistan were quietly rebuilding defence and intelligence ties after Hasina’s exit.
The report stated that military-level exchanges and security cooperation discussions were underway between the two countries and noted that sustained defence cooperation without intelligence coordination was “structurally improbable”.
It had further reported that strategic institutions linked to both sides had entered into cooperation arrangements and that liaison-level engagement and information exchanges were developing beneath the public diplomatic layer.
Another The Sunday Guardian report published on 12 November 2025 had reported that Pakistan’s ISI had re-established operational networks in Bangladesh after the political transition in Dhaka and that intelligence and defence cooperation between the two countries had expanded significantly after 2024.
The latest MoU indicates that structured intelligence and security coordination between Dhaka and Islamabad has now moved into the formal domain.
The agreement comes amid rapidly expanding Pakistan-Bangladesh engagement over the past year, including increased diplomatic exchanges, military delegation visits, discussions on defence procurement and growing trade cooperation.
Reports in recent months have also pointed to Bangladesh exploring Pakistani defence platforms, including possible discussions involving JF-17 fighter aircraft.
Under Hasina, Bangladesh had emerged as India’s closest security partner in eastern South Asia.
Dhaka had cooperated extensively with Indian intelligence agencies, dismantled anti-India insurgent infrastructure operating from Bangladeshi territory and sharply restricted Pakistan-linked Islamist and intelligence networks.
The new agreement is likely to be closely watched by India’s security establishment because of the historical role Bangladesh allegedly played during the 1990s and early 2000s as a transit and operational zone for Northeast insurgent groups and Pakistan-linked covert activity.
Security analysts note that intelligence-sharing frameworks often evolve beyond their original mandate once liaison systems, secure communication channels and operational coordination mechanisms are institutionalised.
While the current MoU is officially confined to narcotics trafficking, organised crime and related offences, analysts say the infrastructure being created could eventually expand into wider cooperation involving counterterrorism, cyber-security, border intelligence and strategic coordination.
Even so, the latest agreement represents the clearest sign yet that post-Hasina Bangladesh is recalibrating its regional security posture and reopening state-level strategic channels with Pakistan for the first time in decades.
