Bangladesh is all set to plunge into fundamentalism. Already the country that was carved out of Islamist Pakistan in 1971 has become the hotbed of Islamists of all hues ranging from the al Qaida to its variants and from Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) to Hizb-ut Tahrir (HuT)
by Rama Rao Malladi*
Supporters of Jamaat and other religious parties have every reason to celebrate the death penalty to Sheikh Hasina awarded by a war crimes tribunal. Also, the noble laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the interim regime since the downfall of Hasina government more than a year ago.
They were at the receiving end of Hasina – Jamaat & co., for collaborating with Pakistan Army in the 1971 genocide, and Yunus for not living up to the image of messiah for the poor, and for indulging into politicking.
Two things will happen, if not in quick succession, any day too soon.
One, the fundamentalists will go on full throttle to herald a Theocracy State wedded to the Sharia.
Two, the Awami League caders, who are still largely intact, will go on the offensive.
Will they be effective like the so-called students’ movement that had unseated Hasina? Doubtful. They were part of a ruling dispensation for years. Street politics is an uncharted territory for them.
Some commentators expect the Awami League workers particularly the students and youth to create unrest and thus make the going tough for Yunus regime.
In my considered view, the Awami Leaguers left behind by Hasina have become an amorphous group, if not most, a large section.
Jatiya Party of former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad is walking the extra mile in recent weeks to embrace the Leaguers.
Well, Ershad has left behind a complex legacy with his regime characterized by pervasive corruption and political cynicism.
This background check has no relevance to the Awami Leaguers. What is relevant is the fact that while Ershad had initiated Islamisation of Bangladesh and made Islam the national religion, his regime did not slip into fundamentalists’ hands as is the case now under the so-called apolitical economist Yunus.
Moreover, the two parties were allies till recently. And their coming together will be in mutual interest.
Admittedly the Jatiya party is not in the pink of health. But its biggest plus is that the present dispensation has not gone all out to target its caders in the way the Awami Leaguers are being hounded out.
Put simply, the Ershad party has the potential to become a major political force after the BNP of Khalida Zia, Jamaat and the National Citizens Party (NCP) – the first students-led party of the country. And thus become a rallying point for those looking for the umbrella of a major party.
Leaguers will find the Ershad party attractive in the districts to begin with. Given their secular ethos, they cannot drift towards the BNP with which they have been at loggerheads for several decades.
The tribunal verdict has pushed Bangladesh to the edges, no doubt, what with the Hasina party calling for a nation-wide shutdown, and the Jamaat girding its loins to settle its old scores with the Leaguers.
In that sense, law and order will occupy priority for a while even as a campaign is mounted to speedily usher in a regime that adheres to Islamic laws.
The phrase International that appears as a prefix to the tribunal is a misnomer. The tribunal is hundred percent national, entrusted with the responsibility of bringing to book the collaborators of 1971 genocide perpetrated by the occupation forces of Pakistan.
Well, the demand for trial of war crimes is very old. Successive governments did not walk the talk. For reasons as much national as political, Hasina came to grips with the issue in her fourth term as Prime Minister.
Yunus and his accomplices have found in the tribunal a potent weapon to target Hasina in the hope of finishing her politically and physically. It was a sham trial conducted in the absence of Hasina. The trial was ‘scripted’, as a senior Awami leader says.
Neither the verdict nor the reaction of the toothless global wonder, the United Nations (UN), and the paper tigers championing human rights that fit the Western bill has come as a surprise. They are on expected lines.
Also, neither here nor there is the reaction of the U.S of America, which, Hasina camp believes, had pump primed students’ unrest to force her exit from Dhaka.
As asserted at the outset, Bangladesh is all set to plunge into fundamentalism. Already the country that was carved out of Islamist Pakistan in 1971 has become the hotbed of Islamists of all hues ranging from the al Qaida to its variants and from Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) to Hizb-ut Tahrir (HuT).
Amongst these outfits, I consider the Central Asia based HuT dangerous since its mission is to hound people into “voluntarily” accept Talibanisation.
Another radical group, Jamaat-Char Monai, has openly vowed to model Bangladesh on the lines of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Five months ago, on July 1 to be precise, Char Monai Pir Mufti Syed Muhammad Faizul Karim told a US-based Bangladeshi journalist that “If govt is formed by winning the national election, the Islamic Movement Bangladesh will introduce Sharia law in the country.
In an unprecedented escalation of Islamist persecution, Jamaat-e-Islami — the Bangladeshi arm of the Muslim Brotherhood — has begun imposing the medieval Jizya tax on Hindus and other religious minorities, according to Salah Uddin Shoiab Choudhary, editor of Blitz, a leading publication from Dhaka.
In a post on August 24, Choudhary said the Jamaat was openly declaring its intent to replace the country’s secular framework with Sharia law.
Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, Emir of Jamaat, publicly declared that Hindus and non-Muslims must pay Jizya tax in the same way Muslims pay Zakat (a portion of their wealth donated for religious purposes), if equal rights are truly desired, local media reports said on July 25, 2025.
A week later reports said “Major (sacked) Ziaul Huq Zia — a notorious al-Qaeda-linked terrorist and one of the US State Department’s most wanted fugitives openly called for establishing offices of insurgent movements from Manipur, Khalistan, and Kashmir inside Bangladesh”.
Jamaat enjoys patronage from Pakistan Army’s powerful sleuth, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as well as various Islamist and jihadist organizations.
Two months ago, Shoiab Choudhary cautioned Washington that Jamaat maintains deep ties with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
Millions of dollars have flowed to the US-based Islamist groups with alleged terror connections, a trend that continued even under the Trump administration, says Sam Westrop of the Middle East Forum.
Germane to the discussion on the future of Bangladesh is the reality check that radical Islamist groups have grown emboldened under Yunus regime.
This is no good news for Bangladesh neighbours and to the global cop, who is willing to do business with Bamboo Capitalist by pocketing pride and values for the sake of few rare-earth elements (REE), and to push the sale of American soybeans.
As a recent commentary in the Gatestone Institute noted, the unfolding Islamist surge is “not just a domestic issue” of Bangladesh.
It is a warning to the world about the resurgence of militant Islam in South Asia.
Will the world wait for another 9/11 (New York) or another 26/11 (Mumbai)?
Time is running out for a response to this question, more so since the Interim Tsar of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus is getting ready to stage a sham election early next year while perpetuating deep systemic flaws in matters public safety and individual freedoms.
(*Rama Rao Malladi is New Delhi-based senior journalist who has extensively covered Subcontinental affairs)
