Did Ajit Doval secretly fly into Dhaka on September 17?
For nearly two weeks, parts of the Indian media have reported that he did. The story has since accumulated increasingly specific details of a Gulfstream jet, Tejgaon airbase, an 18-hour stay and meetings with Bangladesh’s two most senior military and intelligence figures.
There is one problem though. At least one of those meetings could not have happened as described.
Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, whom The Kashmir Times said met Doval in Dhaka on September 17, had left Bangladesh for Japan the previous morning. He did not return until September 20.
That is not based on an anonymous source. The dates were announced by Bangladesh’s Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate and reported by multiple news organisations.
Waker left Dhaka on September 16 for a four-day official visit to Japan to attend the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya as president of the Bangladesh Olympic Association.
ISPR subsequently announced that Waker returned home on the night of September 20 after attending the Games and holding meetings in Japan.
Yet the Doval story keeps growing.
The first prominent Indian report appeared in Rediff on September 19.
Under the headline “Why Ajit Doval Visited Dhaka On Thursday,” the report by Bula Devi stated as fact that India’s national security adviser had been in Dhaka on September 17 for “roughly three-quarters of the day”.
It said Doval had travelled as part of preparations for a possible visit to New Delhi by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
The report cited unnamed sources but did not disclose Doval’s flight, arrival point or the identities of Bangladesh officials he supposedly met.
On October 1, The Kashmir Times went considerably further.
Its analysis, “The Doval Doctrine Lands in Dhaka,” by Shome Basu, claimed a Gulfstream jet carrying Doval landed quietly at Tejgaon airbase on the night of September 17.
It said the aircraft avoided public tracking and that Doval remained in Dhaka for about 18 hours.
The report then identified two purported interlocutors: Waker and Major General Mohammad Kaiser Rashid Chowdhury, director general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.
It further claimed Doval invited Kaiser to a South Asian intelligence and security meeting that India’s Research and Analysis Wing, or R&AW, would host in New Delhi in November.
No documentary evidence for the flight or meetings was presented in the report. And its claim about Waker runs directly into the official timeline.
Waker left Bangladesh on September 16. ISPR said he travelled to Japan on a four-day official visit for the Asian Games.
He was scheduled to attend sporting events and hold bilateral meetings with senior Asian Games and Olympic officials. The opening ceremony was held in Aichi-Nagoya on September 19.
After the trip, ISPR said Waker had attended the ceremony, watched Bangladeshi athletes compete and held a bilateral meeting with Olympic Council of Asia President Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani.
He returned to Bangladesh on September 20.
There is another discrepancy. Multiple sources familiar with the movements of senior security officials told Daily Waadaa that DGFI chief Kaiser Rashid Chowdhury was also outside Bangladesh on September 17, travelling in a Gulf country.
Waadaa has not independently obtained an official travel record for Kaiser and is therefore treating that information as sourced rather than established fact.
But if confirmed, it would mean neither of the two Bangladesh officials whom The Kashmir Times specifically claimed Doval met in Dhaka was actually in the country that day.
The Bangladesh government has also publicly declined to validate the basic premise of the reports. Prime Minister’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman said on September 29 that the government had no information about any Doval visit.
“If Ajit Doval had visited Bangladesh, the government would certainly have known about it, and it would have been an official visit,” Zahed said.
He described some reporting concerning Bangladesh, India and other countries as speculation and gossip.
Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi offered no confirmation either. Asked by journalists on September 30 about the reported Doval trip, Trivedi replied: “That went over my head, brother.”
Part of what gives the Doval story plausibility is that the diplomatic backdrop is real.
Relations between Bangladesh and India have been difficult since the 2024 uprising and Sheikh Hasina’s departure for India.
Her continued presence there, Dhaka’s request for her return, border issues and questions of political trust have complicated relations.
At the same time, security contacts have continued.
Kaiser became DGFI chief in February and travelled to New Delhi shortly afterwards for security meetings. Indian reporting at the time said he met Doval and was hosted by R&AW chief Jain.
Jain then came to Dhaka in August.
There has also been discussion of a possible visit by Tarique to New Delhi, although Bangladesh has announced no date. On September 17, Tarique publicly wished Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a happy birthday, and Modi responded later that day.
That public exchange has subsequently been woven into accounts of Doval’s supposed mission.
The Kashmir Times portrayed the timing as part of a broader thaw, even recounting the timing of Modi’s response to Tarique’s message.
The Kashmir Times article goes considerably further than reporting a secret visit.
It speculates about whether New Delhi could turn towards Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami as part of its security calculations and argues that India’s intelligence establishment understands Jamaat’s political position.
Those assertions are part of the author’s analysis, not facts demonstrated by evidence in the report.
The distinction matters because the article combines verifiable developments — strained bilateral relations, intelligence contacts and discussions surrounding future high-level engagement — with highly specific claims resting on unnamed sources.
A separate development on October 1 has added another layer to questions surrounding the reported Doval visit.
Bangladesh police filed an espionage case under the Official Secrets Act against Rabiul Islam, a 44-year-old Indian national from West Bengal, accusing him of maintaining contact with a foreign intelligence agency and attempting to pass sensitive information.
Detective Branch Inspector Mezba Uddin filed the case with Uttara West Police Station on Thursday. Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sefatullah later placed Rabiul on seven days’ remand after investigators sought 10 days for questioning.
Rabiul had initially been detained on September 22 under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after police described his movements as suspicious. He had entered Bangladesh through the Bhomra land port in Satkhira on September 14, according to investigators.
Police allege that Rabiul had travelled to Bangladesh repeatedly over the previous 10 to 12 years, usually on tourist visas, and had used business activities as a cover for espionage.
The case alleges that he attempted to send photographs of important government installations and restricted areas, as well as sensitive government documents and information, to a foreign intelligence agency.
Rabiul has denied involvement with R&AW. During an earlier court appearance, he said he regularly travelled to Bangladesh for garment business and rejected suggestions that he had links with the Indian intelligence agency.
The timing is significant to officials examining the claims surrounding Doval.
Intelligence sources told Waadaa that they found it difficult to reconcile the prosecution with reports that India's national security adviser had secretly been in Dhaka for high-level security talks only days earlier.
One intelligence source argued that had Doval actually made the September 17 visit described by the Indian reports — involving direct meetings with Bangladesh’s top military and intelligence leadership — an espionage allegation involving an Indian national would almost certainly have become a sensitive bilateral security matter before investigators proceeded to court.
The source said it would have been highly unusual for such a case to proceed through the criminal justice system without consultations at senior levels if a clandestine Doval mission aimed at repairing security relations had taken place days earlier.
That assessment is not, by itself, proof that Doval did not visit Dhaka. But the case certainly adds to an already difficult chronology.
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