Dhaka: Bangladesh's main military intelligence went through reforms after the return of democracy following two years of army-backed emergence rule, newspapers reported on Friday, quoting WikiLeaks.

"Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina ordered bringing new officers to the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)," WikiLeaks said, quoting the leaked US diplomatic cable wrote by the then US ambassador James F Moriarty.

It said that after the landmark December 2008 general elections, Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina appointed Major General Mollah Fazle Akbar as the DGFI director general and asked him to bring new officers to the agency who were not involved in the anti-corruption drive or in political activities during the 2007-2008 interim government rule under state of emergency.

"As such, many of his new officers had no intelligence or counter-terrorism training and he was relying on the US to help DGFI's counterterrorism capacity building," the cable said quoting Akbar as telling the envoy.

The cable, published by WikiLeaks on August 30 this year, also quoted Akbar as saying that Hasina had made it clear to him that the DGFI would focus on counterterrorism issues and work closely with the US government.

The order came as the DGFI reportedly supported the creation of Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), an offshoot of banned militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) during the emergency rules while Hasina had also cautioned that the agency could not politically or financially support Islamic militant groups under any circumstances.

According to another Wikileaks document the document a DGFI director told a US diplomat on July 19, 2007 that they had infiltrated HuJI) and that the agency "don't see them attacking western interests".

And, a year later, when DGFI helped this militant outfit's senior members form a political group called Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), Amin attempted to blackmail Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and pressed her to convince the US government to support IDP, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.

He document said It was because of Amin's meddling with the affairs of militants and many other important national issues during post-1/11 days, the then DGFI chief Major General Golam Mohammad in late 2008 had to apologise to US diplomat James F Moriarty and assure him that IDP would not be registered with the Election Commission.

In a meeting on November 12, 2008, Moriarty, the then US ambassador in Dhaka, warned Golam Mohammad that his government vehemently opposed the creation of IDP, formed by senior Huji-B members with DGFI support.

Mohammad agreed when Moriarty pointed out that Amin's actions appeared to undercut Moeen's efforts. Mohammad speculated that Moeen was likely unaware of Amin's discussions with Hasina and his continued efforts on behalf of IDP.

The DGFI chief agreed with the ambassador's argument and explained that he initially supported Amin's theory of bringing Huji-B members into the fold through the establishment of IDP or some other type of political organisation.

Mohammad earlier rationalised that in doing so the Bangladeshi intelligence and security services could monitor and co-opt IDP leaders and arrest those Huji-B members that remained outside of the political process.

But he admitted that while the theory was sound in practice the idea of IDP failed and he now viewed the party in the same light as the ambassador.