The Talibanization of Bangladesh

Liberty is not only precious, but it is also exceedingly fragile – especially in majority-Muslim nations led by secular-leaning governments threatened by Islamists. Any change of power favoring Islamists may put the nation on a path that leads to the destruction of liberties and rights. 

This has occurred in Bangladesh since April 2024, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country as a result of mass student protests which were later hijacked by Islamists. Three days later, economist Muhammad Yunus, supported by the Biden administration, was sworn in as the head of the country’s caretaker government.

Minorities, women, artists, authors, journalists, and secularists have since been targeted. In many cases, they were violated, arrested, or even murdered by Islamists. These attacks by both Islamic radicals and Bangladesh’s new regime have raised fears of increasing Talibanization.

Chinmoy Krishna Das is a striking example of the ongoing religious persecution in Bangladesh. He is a Hindu monk, a minority rights advocate, and a community leader who is the spokesperson of Bangladesh’s Sanatani Jagaran Mancha, a minority rights organization. On November 25, 2024, he was arrested by Bangladeshi police over alleged defamation of the Bangladeshi national flag.

Das is targeted by the new Bangladeshi regime of Yunus because he became the face of the Hindu resistance after the murder of his fellow monks and the burning of the country’s Hindu temples. He is now a prisoner of conscience who is languishing in jail for the alleged crime of “sedition”.

Das is accused of placing the saffron flag (a color associated with Hinduism) higher than the flag of Bangladesh. Last month, a Bangladesh court ordered the arrest of Das in five more cases.

However, supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, a radical Islamic party that spearheads violence against the Hindus, other non-Muslims, and secular people in post-Hasina Bangladesh, have frequently flown Islamic and Jamaat flags higher than the Bangladesh flag. No legal action was taken in these cases. 

Minorities such as Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists remain vulnerable amid these dynamics. Reports of mob violence, forced conversions, and the vandalism of places of worship are widespread, often fueled by Islamist propaganda.

Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent leader of the Hindu community, for instance, was abducted from his home and beaten to death by four individuals on April 18, 2024.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) reported that last year from August 4–20, a total of 2,010 violent attacks on minorities took place across the country. This period coincided with the protests that aimed to oust the government. A total of 915 homes were attacked, looted, or set on fire, and 953 business establishments faced similar fates. Additionally, four women were subjected to sexual assault, including one case of gang rape.

The Council further reported 174 attacks on religious minorities in the country in four months and 11 days (between August 21 and December 31, 2024).

In March 2025, the “Rights and Risks Analysis Group” (RRAG) asked the United Nations to help stop Yunus’ regime from emboldening the Islamic fundamentalists by denying attacks on the minorities in his country. 

The group said that Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor had trivialized the acts of violence against Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians by describing them as outcomes of personal disputes, criminal acts, or accidents.

Yunus’ denial of the atrocities against religious minorities makes the leaders of the Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council extremely vulnerable to further attacks. This was affirmed in an RRAG appeal to the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), and the heads of diplomatic missions and international organizations in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

On March 12, the Unity Council said violence against religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous communities in Bangladesh is continuing unabated, as in the past.

Meanwhile, Islamic groups continue threatening violence to force the cancellation of women’s football matches and store openings featuring Bangladeshi actresses.

In February, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh group announced a protest rally against a women’s football match in Rangpur Region, saying it was un-Islamic. They ransacked the venue and chased away ticketed spectators. Local police intervened and the women’s team members were asked to return to their home for their own safety.

The Islamists insisted that the match they stopped was against their religious values and affirmed that they are determined to prevent any future football games.

“If women want to play football, they should cover their entire body, and they can play only in front of female spectators. Men cannot watch them play,” Maulana Ashraf Ali, the leader of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh in the Taraganj area of Rangpur, said. He also insisted that the group “definitely” wanted hardline Islamic Sharia law in Bangladesh.

The women’s football match was the third to be cancelled in northern Bangladesh in less than two weeks due to Islamists’ objections. In the Dinajpur area, Islamists protested against a game and later clashed with locals who supported it, leaving four people injured.

“If the government fails to act, then Islamists will feel emboldened. There will be more self-censorship for women and girls, they will be more intimidated participating in public events,” said Shireen Huq, a prominent women’s rights activist.

In another incident, a group of Islamic madrasa students attacked a stall at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka over the book display written by Taslima Nasreen, a Bangladeshi author who is in exile in India. 

Nasreen posted on X:

Today, jihadist religious extremists attacked the stall of the publisher Sabyasachi at Bangladesh’s book fair. Their “crime” was publishing my book. The book fair authorities and the police from the local station ordered the removal of my book. Even after it was removed, the extremists attacked, vandalized the stall, and shut it down. The government is supporting these extremists, and jihadist activities are spreading across the country.

Islamists also targeted writer Shatabdi Vobo at the book fair, accusing him of selling Nasrin’s books. With police intervention, Vobo was escorted out of the fair, where he was also forced to apologize publicly.

Events involving actors, Mehazabien Chowdhury, Pori Moni, and Apu Biswa, have also been cancelled because of Islamist threats.

On January 26, film star Pori Moni was forcibly prevented from opening a new department store in Tangail (northeast Bangladesh) due to anger from Hefazat-e-Islam and other groups. 

Moni took to Facebook to protest against “excesses against women in the name of religion.” 

Shortly after, an old case of alleged assault was reopened against her, and an arrest warrant issued against the actress. Muni alleged that the legal case was retaliation against her for speaking out: “Why can’t I work safely in my own country? … If speaking out against injustice means I’ll keep going to jail, then so be it.”

Two days later, another actress, Apu Biswas, was stopped from opening a restaurant in Dhaka due to opposition from local Islamic clerics. The clerics “stated that if Apu Biswas were to inaugurate the restaurant, they would create unrest,” a police official told local media. 

Since taking charge, the Yunus administration has lifted the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s biggest Islamist party, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence and sided with the Pakistan Army in its genocidal campaign during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

Islamist radicals who were sentenced for murder and on terrorism charges, like Jasimuddin Rahmani, chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been released from prison. The Ansarullah terror group, which enjoys close ties with Al Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), had threatened media companies to sack their women employees or face severe consequences.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters vandalised and set fire to homes and buildings connected to deposed PM Sheik Hasina and senior leaders of her Awami League Party. The security forces did not intervene to stop the rioters.Bangladesh was majority Hindu before the Islamic invasion and takeover that started in the eighth century. Today, it is majority Muslim and is currently on a path to evolve into a situation similar to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The new regime is obliterating the rights and security of religious minorities, women, artists, authors, journalists and secular people. It is empowering radical Islamic groups and releasing imprisoned terrorists. These actions will also lead to a rise in Islamic terrorism, which is likely to further spread to the rest of the world.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkey-born journalist formerly based in Ankara. The article first appeared in The European Conservative.