Published: 12:16 AM, 09 April 2026
The Anonymous Trap: Vile Entities Inside State Organs Victimize Righteous People
When the immediate past interim government took oath on 8 August 2024 led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, people from all walks of life became highly optimistic that rule of law, integrity and equal rights will be established under the new ruling authorities following the downfall of the ousted Awami League regime. But as days proceeded, a canopy of disillusionment and gloom started overshadowing everyone's expectations. Things turned out to be old wine in a new bottle. Discrepancies, nepotism, political tagging, anomalies and thorough disorder broke out in all state organs.
The status of rule of law absolutely collapsed with the outbreak of mob gangsters who raped women, assaulted girls, burned cultural institutions, set newspaper offices on fire, plundered and torched shrines and halted all kinds of creative and progressive programs. Very surprising was the fact that the law and order forces and the civil administrators including government agencies kept silent under the interim bosses and abstained from restraining mob outfits from violating the law over and over again.
Unscrupulous quarters imposed unwarranted interventions on state machineries and law enforcement authorities which is how anonymous letters to ordinary traders, journalists, politicians, cultural luminaries, sports organizers, showbiz stars and honest business leaders were subjected to harassment and repression in an explicitly state-sponsored way while the interim government was in power. The heinous aim behind all these vicious activities was to extort bribes from naïve citizens by intimidating them with the misuse of state-run organizations' names and titles. It's difficult to find a worse instance of misgovernance than the above sinister motives and gambits which happened in a totally exposed manner. Immoral things like framing good and law-abiding businessmen in false allegations and influencing the immigration authorities with fake complaints have occurred frequently and still this evil intrigue is going on.
It should be noted that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) needs comprehensive reforms and corrections before appointing new top brass. Even senior ACC officials admitted that ACC is one of the most corruption-ridden agencies in Bangladesh.
Crackdown on newspapers and media outlets took place during the interim government's tenure in a brazen way and several veteran journalists were arrested on vague charges and unproven allegations. These dreadful things never happened in Bangladesh during any of the earlier ruling parties' tenure. Vital relationship with close and large neighbours was also jeopardized. The rise of extremist groups unleashed a spell of panic and severely obstructed women empowerment. On many occasions, it has gone viral on social media how girls were molested and beaten up by fanatical bigots.
Due to devastated law and order plight, foreign direct investment (FDI) and investment from local entrepreneurs have drastically gone down. Abusing the loopholes of legal frameworks noted business owners were humiliated socially and their bank accounts and earning sources of their family members were also confiscated out of sheer vengeance and malice. More than 400 factories including readymade garments (RMG) industries were laid off within the 18 months plus when the interim rulers ran the country. Over 1 million workers have become jobless. Demonstrations by angry workers are breaking out on roads every now and then which cause formidable impediments to people's daily life and aggravated traffic tailbacks.
Banks are not being able to disburse big sums of money to their clients. GDP growth has slumped to 3.03 percent. All these spectacles are reflecting a highly precarious future for Bangladesh for which strong and effective measures have not been yet finalized. Rather political retaliation, taking revenge and suppressing opponents have raised their ugly heads once again.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has come to power with the mandate of the country's voters through the 13th parliamentary elections held on 12 February 2026. Some huge assignments are waiting for the government to be resolved and carried out. The restless geopolitical circumstances in the Middle East over the Iran War have sparked serious energy crisis in a lot of countries worldwide and Bangladesh is feeling the heat unbearably as well. To sustain Bangladesh's industrial advancement, precise remedies for fuel shortage must be explored without delay.
There is still no remarkable progress in recovery of massive defaulted loans and the regulators' performance in retrieving laundered funds from abroad is not satisfactory at all according to financial experts.
Professor Anu Muhammad, Jahangirnagar University said "We have always noticed that all ruling parties speak big but very insufficient concrete actions are taken in reality. We hope the new government will work more and talk less. Creating jobs, reopening laid off factories, restoring cultural vibrancy, recovery of siphoned away funds, establishing freedom of press and reinstating people's rights to speak out their opinions independently are the first and foremost jobs to be done by the government without delay."
Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said that a great deal of assurances comes from governments about fighting corruption but the scale of implementation is very poor. He added that if ACC is responsible for the augmentation of corruption, questions certainly arise whether this agency is viable enough or not.
Dr. Khandaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) commented that speeding up the country's economic wheels is the most vital priority right now. Robust steps need to be taken to encourage investors to engage their funds in Bangladesh's industrial sector, he further said. Dr. Khandaker Golam Moazzem laid emphasis on building up the right investment climate for the sake of the recovery of Bangladesh economy from perils.
