India, Jan. 24 -- The United States is reported to be seeking a friendly relationship with the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh ahead of elections scheduled for next month, and this can potentially further strain American ties with India, where ex-PM Sheikh Hasina is living in exile since her ouster in mass protests in 2024.

US diplomats are looking to step up their engagement with the once-banned radical group, The Washington Post has reported citing audio recordings of a meeting from December 1. In that closed-door meeting with some Bangladeshi journalists, a US diplomat based in Dhaka said the country has "shifted Islamic" and predicted that the Jamaat would "do better than it's ever done before" in the February 12 election, the Po...