The publisher who had a political agenda

For years, Kazi Anis Ahmed offered international readers a consistent account of Bangladesh that the Awami League was an imperfect defender of secularism, while its principal opponents represented a more dangerous combination of political violence and religious extremism.

The argument appeared in some of the English-speaking world's most influential newspapers. In November 2015, writing in The Guardian, Kazi Anis traced the rise of Islamist militancy to the political rehabilitation of Jamaat-e-Islami under Ziaur Rahman and its subsequent alliance with Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Earlier that year, in The Wall Street Journal, he connected a BNP-led shutdown to petrol-bomb attacks and discussed criminal allegations against Khaleda and her son, Tarique Rahman.

In December 2018, as Bangladesh approached another disputed election, his New York Times essay posed a stark choice in its headline: “Bangladesh's Choice: Authoritarianism or Extremism.”

These were legitimate subjects for political commentary. The BNP's history, its alliance with Jamaat and episodes of political violence deserved scrutiny. But Kazi Anis was not simply a commentator observing Bangladesh from a distance.

He was a newspaper publisher, a senior figure in one of the country's prominent business conglomerates, a university trustee, a literary festival founder and, eventually, president of PEN Bangladesh.

His family also had direct connections to the Awami League. His brother, Kazi Nabil Ahmed, served as an Awami League lawmaker from 2014 to 2024.

A September 2024 investigation by Netra News found out that a Dubai-based company controlled by Kazi Anis had financed a Washington lobbying operation whose activities aligned with the political interests of Sheikh Hasina's government.

The disclosures prompted an extraordinary rupture inside Dhaka Lit Fest. Two of its founders accused their fellow trustee of financing a political influence campaign without informing them.

Now, another dispute has emerged.

Ahsan Akbar, one of the festival's three directors alongside Kazi Anis and Sadaf Saaz, had initiated two legal proceedings against Kazi Anis in London.

When contacted, Akbar declined to discuss their substance, citing the proceedings before the court in London. Daily Waadaa has not independently examined the pleadings or established the claims involved.

Waadaa repeatedly approached Kazi Anis with detailed questions about his political commentary, the Washington lobbying operation, his relationship with the Awami League and the allegations made by his former festival colleagues.

He did not respond.

The narrative sold abroad

Kazi Anis's political commentary was neither occasional nor ambiguous.

His Guardian article in November 2015, “Bangladesh's ideological murders are a further attack on its liberal ideals,” situated the country's political crisis within a longer struggle over secularism and religious extremism.

The article criticised the Awami League government's treatment of its opponents, describing its approach as a scorched-earth policy. Yet its central historical argument located much of Bangladesh's contemporary political danger in the BNP-Jamaat alliance.

His Wall Street Journal article, “Bangladesh Burning,” similarly presented the violence surrounding the BNP-led blockade through the activities and alleged involvement of opposition activists.

By the 2018 election, the distinction had hardened.

The New York Times headline framed Bangladesh's political choices as a contest between authoritarianism and extremism. The implication was that the government's authoritarian tendencies, however troubling, had to be weighed against an opposition associated with a more fundamental threat.

Those article mattered because of the audience.

The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reach diplomats, policymakers, academics and opinion-makers whose understanding of Bangladesh often depends on a relatively small number of English-language voices.

A Bangladeshi publisher writing repeatedly in these outlets could therefore influence how the country's political choices were understood internationally. But the political landscape has since changed dramatically.

In January 2025, Bangladesh's Supreme Court acquitted Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and others in the Zia Orphanage Trust case, overturning convictions that had shaped the political fortunes of the BNP leadership.

In February 2026, a BNP-led alliance won 212 parliamentary seats, returning Tarique to power. Jamaat, meanwhile, emerged as a principal opposition force rather than simply an appendage of the BNP.

The electoral outcome does not retrospectively invalidate every criticism Kazi Anis made. Nor does it erase the history of political violence or the ideological differences between the parties.

It does, however, expose the limitations of treating the BNP and Jamaat as a permanent, indivisible political threat.

Waadaa asked Kazi Anis how he assessed the influence of his international essays in shaping perceptions of the BNP and Jamaat, particularly now that the BNP governs Bangladesh and Jamaat occupies the opposition benches.

The publication also asked whether his overlapping positions as columnist, publisher and businessman had contributed to a propaganda model in which political interests could be presented through apparently independent editorial platforms.

He did not answer either question.

His political interventions continued after the Awami League lost power. In March 2026, Kazi Anis criticised National Citizen Party leader Nahid Islam in a Facebook post after Nahid disputed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's status as Bangladesh's founder.

In another post, he attacked the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration and the new BNP government for failing to commemorate Mujib's birthday. He also criticised the BNP's response to a Jamaat parliamentary motion.

Some of those Facebook posts linked directly to Dhaka Tribune articles.

The posts are expressions of political opinion, not evidence of editorial interference. But they illustrate the continuing proximity of the publisher's political voice to the media institutions he oversees.

The Washington operation: $430,000 in lobbying

The most consequential questions about Kazi Anis's political activities emerged on September 27, 2024.

That day, Netra News published an investigation tracing a Washington lobbying campaign to Green Perspective, a Dubai-based company it identified as being controlled by Kazi Anis.

According to the investigation, Washington lobbyist Seth Oldmixon conducted a multiyear influence operation involving US government agencies and members of Congress between 2015 and 2019.

The lobbying disclosures examined by Netra showed $430,000 in reported expenditure over five years. Crucially, however, only $80,000 was explicitly attributed to Green Perspective in those filings. The complete source of the remaining expenditure was not established in the disclosed records.

Oldmixon's lobbying covered Bangladesh-related congressional resolutions, including measures sponsored by Tulsi Gabbard and Jim Banks. Among them were H.Res.396, sponsored by Gabbard, and H.Res.1156 and H.Res.160, sponsored by Banks.

Netra argued that the resolutions promoted political themes favourable to the Awami League government, particularly its portrayal of Islamist militancy and the opposition's alleged association with extremism.

The investigation also documented Oldmixon's connections with the Middle East Forum and his appearance alongside Sam Westrop at a Hudson Institute event involving Banks.

These associations were significant because they connected the campaign to a network of conservative American activists whose political positions were often far removed from the liberal, secular image cultivated by Kazi Anis internationally.

The lobbying began in 2015, the same year Kazi Anis published articles in The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian examining political violence, the BNP-Jamaat alliance and threats to secularism.

His international commentary and the Washington lobbying operation thus occupied overlapping political territory. That coincidence does not prove coordination between the opinion columns and the lobbying campaign.

It does however raise a disclosure question.

Readers encountering Kazi Anis's arguments in major international newspapers were not informed, according to Netra, about his reported financial connection to a Washington operation advancing related political themes.

For a publisher who occupied prominent positions in institutions associated with free expression and independent debate, the omission was consequential.

Waadaa asked Kazi Anis to identify the intended beneficiaries and objectives of the lobbying financed through Green Perspective.

It also asked why those interests had not been publicly disclosed alongside his political commentary and whether he considered the operation consistent with the independence claimed by the institutions he represented.

He did not respond.

The DLF rupture and the London cases

The Netra investigation produced an immediate confrontation within Dhaka Lit Fest, one of Bangladesh's most internationally recognised literary events.

On September 27, 2024, the day the investigation appeared, Sadaf Saaz and Ahsan Akbar wrote to Kazi Anis on the festival's letterhead. All three were directors or trustees of the Dhaka Literary Festival Trust.

The letter, described in documents accompanying the original account reviewed for this article, accused Kazi Anis of supporting the Awami League government during the July-August 2024 uprising and of financing a political public-relations campaign in the United States without informing his fellow trustees.

Saaz and Akbar distinguished ordinary political disagreement from what they considered support for a government responsible for violent repression. They alleged that the Washington campaign was incompatible with the festival's commitment to independent thought and pluralism.

Their objections were not limited to whether Kazi Anis had supported the Awami League. They concerned the use of political money, the absence of disclosure and the possible reputational consequences for a cultural institution they had jointly established.

More than two years later, the dispute has acquired a legal dimension.

Waadaa contacted Akbar to ask about his relationship with Kazi Anis and the controversy surrounding the festival. Akbar said he was involved in two legal proceedings against Kazi Anis in London.

In his written response, he explained that he did not consider it appropriate to comment because he was a party to proceedings before the High Court in London involving Kazi Anis and his two brothers.

On January 26, 2025, Akbar spoke at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity titled “Soft Power, Hard Abuse: The Media Mafia of Awami League, and accused the Awami League government of devoting substantial resources to controlling domestic media and shaping international opinion.

He identified the Digital Security Act of 2018 as an important instrument for suppressing dissent and argued that the government simultaneously pursued an extensive international lobbying and public-relations strategy.

“For example, international political lobbyists were hired, questionable members of the US Congress were paid, and biased opinions were propagated,” Akbar said.

He alleged that the Centre for Research and Information, or CRI, an organisation associated with Sheikh Hasina's family, had helped extend the former government's influence over cultural and intellectual platforms, including PEN Bangladesh.

Akbar also alleged that Dhaka Lit Fest had been misused to promote the government's political interests.

He described elements of the international messaging as anti-Muslim, aligned with Hindutva and supportive of Israel, and said the activities had intensified from 2015.

Akbar further alleged that millions of dollars had been transferred to foreign individuals and organisations without Bangladesh Bank approval, potentially violating Bangladesh's money-laundering laws and Kazi Anis was involved with it.

Akbar also said he and his family had faced threats and intimidation from the Rapid Action Battalion during the Awami administration.

Waadaa asked Kazi Anis to respond to the allegations of his fellow trustees, including whether the lobbying campaign had compromised the festival's independence or reputation.

It also sought his explanation of the relationship between his political activities and his responsibilities as a founder and director.

No reply was received.

A family empire and corruption allegation 

Kazi Anis's prominence in Bangladesh cannot be understood through his journalism alone.

His influence rests on an interconnected set of businesses, newspapers, educational institutions and cultural organisations, many of them established or expanded through the Kazi family's commercial interests.

His father, Kazi Shahid Ahmed, founded Ajker Kagoj, a newspaper that became an influential voice in the political conflicts of the 1990s.

Kazi Shahid was an outspoken critic of Khaleda Zia and the BNP. His columns accused the party's leadership of corruption, nepotism, political violence and authoritarianism.

He also faced state pressure for his journalism. Human Rights Watch documented his experience of persecution under the BNP government, including sedition allegations connected to Ajker Kagoj.

That history is important because the family's relationship with politics was not simply one of supporting those in power. Its media institutions had also experienced the consequences of confrontation with a government.

Yet the ideological continuity between father and son is striking.

The language Kazi Shahid employed against Khaleda and the BNP in the 1990s reappeared, in a more internationally accessible form, in Kazi Anis's essays two decades later.

The family subsequently acquired substantial institutional influence during the Awami League's long period in office. Kazi Nabil Ahmed, Kazi Anis's brother and a Gemcon Group director, served as an Awami League lawmaker between 2014 and 2024.

Another brother, Kazi Inam Ahmed, held senior roles in Gemcon and the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Kazi Anis himself was associated with the Dhaka Tribune, Bangla Tribune, the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), Dhaka Lit Fest and PEN Bangladesh.

He also served on the editorial advisory board of WhiteBoard, a policy publication associated with CRI, the Awami League-linked research organisation.

WhiteBoard was edited by Radwan Mujib Siddiq, Sheikh Hasina's nephew and a CRI trustee.

Kazi Anis served as president of PEN Bangladesh from 2021 until 2025. He was succeeded by Shamsad Mortuza, who also serves as vice-chancellor of ULAB.

Kazi Anis has continued to be identified as president of ULAB's Board of Trustees, placing the university's senior academic leadership and the leadership of PEN Bangladesh within overlapping institutional relationships.

The questions surrounding Kazi Anis's institutional responsibilities acquired another dimension in September 2025.

The Anti-Corruption Commission announced that it had approved a case against him over allegations of accumulating wealth beyond his known sources of income.

According to the ACC, the amount involved was 80.35 crore taka.

The commission also identified approximately 79.14 crore taka in suspicious transactions through 20 bank accounts held in his name between 2002 and 2022.

The allegations involved provisions of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act and the Money Laundering Prevention Act.

A separate case was approved against his brother, Kazi Inam Ahmed, involving allegations of unexplained wealth and suspicious banking transactions.

In November 2025, a Dhaka court imposed a travel ban on Kazi Anis and ordered the freezing of his 20 bank accounts.

The court also ordered the attachment of properties and investments following petitions from the ACC.

The measures included immovable properties valued at approximately 7.20 crore taka and investments worth 84.89 crore taka, according to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. 

Waadaa sent Kazi Anis a detailed set of questions on these cases but he never replied.

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