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The Print
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
A year after Bangladesh's Monsoon Revolution, a parched summer looms ahead
Even as Bangladesh prepares to mark the first anniversary of the so-called Monsoon Revolution — the violent rebellion that forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed to flee the country — disquiet is mounting over the legacy of those dramatic events. The de facto Prime Minister, Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus, has announced that elections will be held in April. But no one knows for sure if this will halt the country's descent into chaos and the disintegration of its multicultural ethos. 'The doors of hell were forced wide open,' the elderly Saraswati Sarkar recalled to a team of jurists , 'They chased women, children, men like ferocious, blind, and passionate brutes, hungry for blood and murder, and the flesh of women.' Truckloads of dead bodies were driven past Nitaiganj, Kshirodi Bala Dasi later remembered , to be tossed into the river Lakha, not far from the Isphani Jute Mills. Vultures, kites, and crows gorged themselves through the day as the bodies rotted; at night, jackals would gather to feast. There was no one left to help. The few local Hindus who had escaped the massacres had fled into the woods, leaving behind their burned-down homes. Finding drinking water was almost impossible: the river stank of death for weeks, until the end of 1964. Large-scale mob violence, journalists Arafat Rahaman and Sajjad Hossain write, has claimed 179 lives in the last ten months, often in the presence of police. The victims include politicians, members of religious minorities, women accused of dressing improperly, purported blasphemers, and, in one case, a person suffering from psychiatric illness. Women's football matches have had to be cancelled due to mob threats, Hindu shrines have been vandalised, and national monuments, like founding patriarch Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman's home, burned down. Islamist groups, meanwhile, are growing in power. The Jamaat-e-Islami, proscribed under Prime Minister Hasina for its role in war crimes during 1971, has cashed in on the anti-establishment, populist sentiments that drove last year's youth protests. The release of cleric Jashimuddin Rahmani, an al-Qaeda-inspired ideologue who preached violence online, has given renewed space to jihadist groups such as Ansarullah Bangla Team, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, and Hizb ut-Tahrir. To end the chaos, a political outcome is needed, one that is inclusive and empowers the institutions of governance. But former Prime Minister Hasina's Awami League has been banned, leaving a substantial section of Bangladesh's voters without representation in the April elections. The party had previously been proscribed three times — by Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1958, General Yahya Khan in 1971, and General Ziaur Rahman in 1975. Little imagination is needed to see that the fascist impulses that overpowered Bangladesh in 1964—just seven years before the Liberation War, which cast it as a hero of secular-democratic politics—could be unleashed, should a genuine restoration of democracy prove illusory. A million and a half refugees came to India in 1950; more than 6,00,000 in 1951-52; another 1.6 million between 1953 and 1956. Largely landless Muslims also streamed into the east, but didn't leave behind properties that could be used for rehabilitation. India considered using its military to seize territory in Khulna and Jessore, historian Pallavi Raghavan has written, but concluded that war would mean even more refugees. The 1964 killings, however, sparked a ferocious communal response in India, with 264 people reported killed in Kolkata alone. Also read: Coup rumours are circulating in Dhaka. Here's why the army isn't keen on it Fragmenting democracy The road to disillusionment has been a short one for Bangladeshis. In 1990, a mass uprising—involving future Prime Ministers Hasina and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party rival Khaleda Zia—overthrew military dictator Husain Muhammad Ershad. Elections saw Prime Minister Khaleda take power, beginning what scholar Ali Riaz, now an advisor to Yunus, has called the country's new democratic era. Five years later, Khaleda peacefully conceded power when the Awami League won the next election. From the outset, though, there were cracks in the new system. First, as Riaz notes, both major parties discarded the allies who had backed them during the struggle against General Ershad. This narrowed the reach of the political system. Second, both parties launched mass movements against the government while in opposition, undermining its legitimacy. Khaleda's victory in 2001 created new imbalances. Although the electoral margin was razor-thin, the first-past-the-post system gave the BNP a substantial majority in Parliament. Hasina alleged electoral fraud and initially refused to join the new Parliament. Her MPs later took their oaths, but in 2006, the parties deadlocked over appointing a caretaker government to supervise elections. In early 2007, the Awami League announced it would boycott the polls. Faced with this impasse—and widespread street violence that left dozens dead—the military stepped in. Army chief General Moeen Ahmed persuaded the President to declare a state of Emergency. Former World Bank official Fakhruddin Ahmed took charge as Chief cases were filed against both Zia and Hasina in what was initially hailed as a campaign to clean up the country's system. Islamist rise Two principal forces benefitted from this democratic collapse. First was the Jamaat-e-Islami, heir to the Pakistan Army's war crimes in 1971. During 2001-2005, scholar Devin Hagerty notes, the Jama'at leveraged its 18 MPs to secure control over the ministries of agriculture and social welfare. This, together with remittances from supporters in the Middle East, allowed it to set up a massive network of seminaries, economic institutions, and welfare organisations. For all practical purposes, the Jama'at became 'a state within a state.' Islamists outside the political mainstream also flourished. Closely linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and al-Qaeda, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh drew hundreds of recruits from Salafist seminaries. In August 2005, the group set off an estimated 500 bomb explosions, targeting 300 locations in 63 of the country's 64 districts. The organisation's hopes of setting up an Islamist mini-state were crushed by security forces, but it laid the foundation for persistent threats to Bangladesh, as well as India. Hizb-ut-Tahrir, led by diaspora elements in the United Kingdom, brought caliphate ideology to elite campuses. The al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team later began assassinating progressive activists. The new authoritarianism After returning to power post-Emergency, Prime Minister Hasina built an order designed to insulate her regime from political and security threats. The Awami League cracked down on BNP street protests, jailed opposition leaders, and used force ahead of the 2014 elections. For the most part, judicial independence was erased through political control of appointments and threats. The caretaker governance system, established in 1996 to ensure impartial elections, was abolished in 2011. To insulate itself from jihadist and Jamaat-e-Islami attacks, Hasina's government allied with Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, a movement of clerics and madrasa students. Hefazat's demands included Islamic language in the Constitution, gender segregation in public spaces, and capital punishment for blasphemy — eating into Jamaat's traditional support base. The Awami League's strategy to crush the opposition worked in 2018 and again in 2024. But in July, what began as a student protest against job quotas evolved into a mass movement to oust Hasina and her increasingly authoritarian regime. The government responded with violence. Eventually, fearing the cracking of the country's social edifice as well as state, the army forced Hasina out. For the upcoming elections to matter, they must mark the beginning of an inclusive political revival and the rebuilding of a multicultural society. There is no roadmap, but there are plenty of reminders of what failure will look like. Eleven hundred people were killed in East Pakistan in 1964, official estimates say. An American Peace Corps nurse counted 600 bodies at a single hospital in Dhaka. Each of those bodies is a reminder that Bangladesh's Arab Spring could all too easily give way to a long, parched summer. Praveen Swami is contributing editor at ThePrint. He tweets with @praveenswami. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
India Today
18-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
How the Islamist surge in Bangladesh is a threat to India too
A classified intelligence report jointly compiled by several national and regional agencies between August 2024 and March 2025 has revealed a disturbing resurgence of Islamist extremist activity in Bangladesh, posing a significant threat to the country's democratic transition and regional stability. Based on social network analysis, human intelligence and on-ground surveillance, the report traces the regrouping of radical factions in and around Dhaka, linking this phenomenon to an organised effort to derail Bangladesh's political recovery ahead of the national elections recently announced by interim leader Muhammad Yunus for early April intelligence assessment outlines how a hardline Islamist network—drawing elements from Hizb ut-Tahrir, Islamic State and Ansarullah Bangla Team—has been rebuilding its infrastructure, particularly among Dhaka's youth and religious fringe. This network is believed to be the main force behind the mobilisation of the so-called Towhidi Janata mobs, responsible for recent attacks on mazaars (Sufi shrines), minority communities and public institutions. Intelligence officials warn that these groups are operating with an alarming degree of coordination, staging blockades in front of Shahbagh Police Station, RAB headquarters and even Kashimpur Jail, in addition to storming the offices of mainstream newspapers such as Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. Over 50 public 'religious' seminars have been organised in the past six months across Bangladesh—nominally spiritual events, but in fact used to identify, vet and recruit new members for regional extremist has further alarmed intelligence agencies is the systematic establishment of 18 to 20 gymnasiums and martial arts centres around the country. These are not just fitness centres—they serve as hubs of ideological indoctrination and militant training. The new recruits, particularly disillusioned young men mostly from conservative backgrounds, are trained physically and mentally to serve the radical Islamist networks that seek to upset Bangladesh's fragile political the ideological front, three radical preachers—Enayetullah Abbasi, Abu Toha Muhammad Adnan and Rafiqul Islam Madani—are spearheading a campaign of hate speech and veiled incitement to violence. Intelligence reports suggest they have rallied around Mufti Harun Ijhar, a known extremist formerly associated with Hifazat-e-Islam and arrested in 2021. Since August last year, these preachers have travelled extensively across rural districts, publicly endorsing Mufti Ijhar's call for an Islamic revival and using populist rhetoric to present themselves as the voice of 'real Muslims' in opposition to the secular A disturbing layer to this emerging ecosystem is the role of sympathetic media figures. A journalist affiliated with a popular Bangla daily has been named in the report as a key propagandist and enabler of Ijhar's network. This person, closely associated with the daily's editor and a Bangladeshi ideologue, has allegedly worked to suppress coverage of Islamist violence in mainstream media. He also collaborates with controversial YouTuber Elias Hossain to craft misleading narratives that portray Bangladesh as free from extremism—despite mounting evidence to the intelligence report identifies 15 individuals embedded in various professional domains such as healthcare, academia, digital content creation and religious education, who are operating as covert recruiters and propagandists for Hizb ut-Tahrir and Islamic State affiliates. Recruits are often drawn from elite institutions, including the Bangladesh University of Engineering and technology (BUET) and private universities, where they are groomed to act as 'sleeper agents' and 'ideological multipliers'.The report outlines three competing but overlapping hypotheses regarding the motivations of these networks. The first posits that the extremists are deliberately fomenting chaos in order to delay or disrupt the upcoming election and create conditions favourable for a covert military or ideological takeover. The second suggests these groups may be acting at the behest of a powerful interest group—possibly with foreign links—that seeks to prevent the election from taking place on time, thereby preserving a transitional status quo favourable to their strategic interests. The third, longer-term strategy appears to involve weakening the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) through a sustained campaign of propaganda and reducing the BNP's projected seat count and rendering it incapable of forming a stable government, Islamist factions hope to gain parliamentary leverage—particularly under the Yunus government's proposed reforms that grant more power to the opposition. Over time, this could pave the way for an incremental Islamist capture of Bangladesh's political system through legal and electoral which shares a porous 4,096-km border with Bangladesh, has taken note of these developments with deep concern. The resurgence of Islamist extremism in a neighbouring state carries immediate implications for border security, communal harmony in West Bengal and Assam, and cross-border terrorism. The use of digital platforms to radicalise individuals in Bangladesh could easily be replicated across the border, especially in vulnerable minority-dense districts. Indian intelligence officials have already red-flagged signs of ideological spillover and potential infiltration routes being tested along the these threats, the response from the interim Yunus government has been notably restrained. Despite repeated red flags raised by national and foreign security agencies, key figures with open links to internationally proscribed organisations are operating with near impunity. Public seminars, inflammatory sermons and strategic recruitment drives have continued unabated. While Yunus has publicly committed to holding free and fair elections in April 2026, his administration's reluctance to crack down on rising extremism has raised serious questions about its priorities and political calculations. Some analysts believe the leniency stems from an unwillingness to alienate powerful religious groups or stir controversy ahead of elections. Others fear that parts of the interim establishment may view the Islamists as a counterweight to both the Awami League and the joint intelligence report concludes with a warning that unless urgent and coordinated action is taken—both by Dhaka and its regional partners—the Islamist resurgence could reverse years of progress in secular governance and democratic institution-building in Bangladesh. For India, the report serves as a stark reminder that the next phase of regional instability may not arise from across its western frontier—but from its to India Today Magazineadvertisement
News18
27-05-2025
- Business
- News18
Why Yunus's Each Day In Office Puts Bangladesh, India & Region At Risk
Last Updated: Bangladesh's economic collapse can set the region in turmoil. To top it, Yunus and his student advisers have facilitated growing jihadism and Islamist takeover of institutions In about 10 days, Muhammad Yunus's caretaker government will complete 10 disastrous months in power with nothing to show for it. Bangladesh's democracy has been suspended, the economy in collapse, and law and order on indefinite leave since mobs ousted Sheikh Hasina and celebrated it by waving their 76-year-old Prime Minister's bra. Highlights of the Yunus government's tenure so far have been unleashing waves of genocidal terror against political opponents, setting free from prison several terrorists including Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Muhammad Jasimuddin Rahmani, giving Islamist groups like Jamaat, Hefazat, and Khelafat free play, allowing proscribed outfit Hizbut Tahrir's first public rally in Dhaka, making up ad hoc laws to stay in power, and bringing the economy to the point of breakdown. At a press conference on Sunday, top industrialists said Bangladesh's economy was a ticking time bomb. The business leaders accused the interim government of sleeping through leaping production costs, fuel shortages, and a hostile business environment. They warned that the power and gas crisis is wrecking local industries and leading to factory shutdowns, mass layoffs, and financial defaults. Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association President Showkat Aziz Russell said if during the 1971 Liberation War intellectuals were targeted, in 2025 it is the entrepreneurs. 'We are paying gas bills but getting no supply. Factories are idle, yet we are pressured to repay loans, deal with soaring interest rates, and face government threats," Dhaka Tribune quoted him as saying. Bangladesh's economic collapse — given its massive low-income workforce — is enough to set the region in turmoil. To top it, Yunus and his immature and greedy student advisers have facilitated growing jihadism and the Islamist takeover of institution after institution. If Yunus and his current team continue in power, Bangladesh could slide into civil war with the right (or rather, wrong) kind of push. Their current dispensation is solely interested in hanging on unelected for as long as possible and making appalling amounts of money while Bangladesh goes to the dogs. Moazzem Hossain, the former assistant personal secretary (APS) of Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, is accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth of over 300 crore taka in such a short time. Many believe it is Asif's money, that too just a fraction of what the 'student adviser' has swiftly laundered. This lot has resorted to emotionally blackmailing the nation that they were the harbingers of Liberation 2.0, so they should be allowed to rule without an electoral mandate. Not just that, they want to carry out 'sanskar' or reforms of everything from the electoral process to education, a job which only an elected government must undertake. BNP, the party projected to win handsomely if elections are held now, has taken to the streets demanding elections. Its exiled leader Tarique Rahman slammed the Yunus government from London for the state of the economy and law and order. If the BNP intensifies its agitation, the Yunus government will not be able to withstand it. The Yunus government, run from the shadows by Jamaat and other Islamists, also want to permanently ban the Awami League from Bangladesh politics. It has already outlawed AL's activities. If the Awami League is barred from contesting, it will fulfil Pakistani ISI or the Muslim Brotherhood's dream of subverting for good Bangladesh's spirit of Bengali nationalism which AL captures at least on paper, and usurping it by an Islamic caliphate in the garb of exclusionary democracy. But what stands between Bangladesh and the abyss is its army. Bangladesh army chief Waker-uz-Zaman wants Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus gone and elections held as soon as possible. The army, as well as the BNP, have cautioned Yunus not to get on to a misadventure like opening the Chittagong corridor for the UN and pushing his own nation and the region into chaos, only to do the US Deep State's bidding. The Yunus regime tacitly tried to engineer a coup in the army to topple General Waker, but all the service chiefs and the forces stand firmly with him today. Waker is against Yunus's idea of waiting until June for elections, a ploy to buy time. The interim government's legal basis is dubious. Article 123 of Bangladesh's Constitution mandates elections within 90 days of a government's dissolution, whatever the reason may be. Using it, the army may instruct President Mohammed Shahabuddin to declare a state of emergency. During an emergency, the President could dissolve the interim government and declare immediate elections. Under Article 141A of the Bangladesh Constitution, the President can take on emergency powers if the constitutional machinery breaks down. Given Yunus and his advisers' wilful dithering, that could be the only logical option left. Each day Yunus and his band of boys who suffer from premature articulation are in power, peace in the region will be taking a few big steps away. Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: May 27, 2025, 11:32 IST News opinion Opinion | Why Yunus's Each Day In Office Puts Bangladesh, India & Region At Risk
News18
10-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Flags Of Banned Terror Outfit Fly In Dhaka As India Deals With Pakistan On Western Front
Last Updated: Jasimuddin Rahmani, a radical Islamist cleric and spiritual leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned terrorist organisation in Bangladesh, was also present in the protest At a time when India is engaged with its western neighbour Pakistan, the down sliding of its eastern neighbour Bangladesh to radical Islam could prove to be another concern for India. On Friday night, when India was engaged with Pakistan, flags of terror organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir—which is banned in India—were flaunted openly on the streets on Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. In a protest in Shahbagh area of Dhaka, a video of which was seen by News18, multiple Hizb ut-Tahrir flags can be seen waving without any objections during a protest to ban former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. In what may raise eyebrows in South Block, there were religious slogans in Urdu peppered in between. Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) seeks to create a global Islamic caliphate governed by Sharia, viewing it as a divine obligation for Muslims, much like the Islamic State. They see systems like democracy, capitalism or secularism as assaults on Islamic governance. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a pan-Islamist organisation that came to the limelight since Hasina's exit. Despite being 'banned' in Bangladesh, the outfit behaves politically, often seen waving ISIS flags along with its own. The terror outfit is banned in 13 countries for having close links with al Qaeda and ISIS. On Friday, many political parties and social organisations like National Citizen Party, Islami Andolan, Hefajat-e-Islam, Jamat-e-Islam, AB Party among others were present at Dhaka's Shahbag protest. Also, Jasimuddin Rahmani, a Bangladeshi radical Islamist cleric and spiritual leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a banned terrorist organisation in Bangladesh, was also present in the protest. Bangladeshi journalist Shahidul Hasan Khokon says the protests are more than just anti-Hasina political movements. 'Dissent, protest and anti-government movements are nothing new in Bangladesh's political culture. But when those protests are covered with the symbols of a foreign terrorist organisation, the question arises—who is this protest for? Who are behind it? Whose language is being borrowed? These are organisations that oppose democracy, women's rights, religious tolerance, and cultural diversity—everything. Do they want to establish a 'Caliphate'-based regime, where dissent, different beliefs and different thoughts are forbidden?" At a time when India is dealing with a radical Pakistan joined by Turkey, it certainly can't afford to take its eyes off its eastern borders. First Published: May 10, 2025, 14:26 IST
