One year after the July-August 2024 riots that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, Bangladesh stands at the precipice of catastrophe. While the post-coup regime promised justice, a discrimination-free society and democracy, it has turned into a fascist putting the country into a nightmare of unchecked extremism, armed anarchy, and mobocracy.
Under the interim regime led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the nation grapples with a lethal cocktail of looted arsenals fueling militants, prison breaks unleashing jihadists, and a “Touhidi Janata” โ a self-proclaimed “unified populace” โ enforcing vigilante justice under Islamist banners.
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This is not a mere political transition; it is state-sponsored terrorism masquerading as reform, eroding the secular fabric of a nation born from 1971’s Liberation War.
The Yunus government’s failures are not accidental. From the release of convicted Al-Qaeda affiliates to the porous borders inviting smuggled arms, the regime’s inaction โ or worse, complicity โ has empowered extremists. As elections loom between December 2025 and June 2026, the stakes are existential: Will Bangladesh reclaim its democratic soul, or succumb to a Taliban-like theocracy?
The international community, from Canada’s stark travel advisory to UN human rights probes, watches in horror as this South Asian dynamo teeters toward collapse.
The Arsenal of Anarchy: Looted weapons and border breaches
The July 2024 uprising was a tinderbox of rage, but its aftermath has armed the shadows. Over 460 police stations were vandalised, with 114 set ablaze and 1,024 vehicles torched. In the frenzy, 5,756 firearms โ including Chinese rifles, submachine guns (SMGs), and pistols โ were looted, alongside 652,082 rounds of ammunition.
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As of October 2025, a staggering 1,343 weapons and 250,000 bullets remain unrecovered, circulating in the black market and into militant hands. Recent busts in Chittagong and Dhaka uncovered revolvers and Chinese rifle rounds being hawked by criminals, who confessed to underground sales networks.
Compounding this domestic haemorrhage are prison heists. During the chaos, 2,247 inmates fled high-security facilities in Narsingdi, Kushtia, Satkhira, Sherpur, and Kashimpur, looting 67 weapons โ only 27 recovered. Among the escapees: 93 “special nature” convicts, including death-row militants, with 60 recaptured but dozens still at large.
At least nine jihadists from Narsingdi โ linked to Islamic State (IS), Ansar al-Islam (an Al-Qaeda franchise), and Hizb ut-Tahrir โ vanished into the ether. Intelligence whispers that some have fled to Pakistan via Nepal for training, infiltrated India’s Northeast for sabotage, or even surfaced in Saudi Arabia and the UK. One Narsingdi escapee was nabbed in Malaysia with 34 IS affiliates in June 2025.
Borders, once Hasina’s fortified bulwarks, now bleed arms. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) reports persistent smuggling of pistols, magazines, and bullets, unchecked by feeble surveillance. Crime experts warn that this influx, merged with looted stockpiles, primes the pump for election-time violence: assassinations, bombings, and turf wars.
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The Yunus regime’s much-touted reward program โ Tk50,000 for a pistol, up to Tk500,000 for a light machine gun โ flopped amid administrative rot. While 9,191 legal arms were surrendered, 1,654 licensed ones vanished into illegality.
Dr. Touhidul Haque, Dhaka University criminology professor, cuts to the bone: “Looted arms in criminal hands spell electoral bloodbaths. Tech, intel, and ops must synchronise โ now.” Yet, security analysts decry the interim setup’s “extreme failure”: disjointed forces, delayed raids, and eroded public trust, transforming administrative lapses into national peril.
Jihad Unleashed: From prison cells to global shadows
The prison breaks were no random riots; they were orchestrated liberations. On July 19, 2024, Narsingdi’s jail fell to mob assaults, killing 13 inmates (seven in Jamalpur, six in Kashimpur) and injuring 200 guards. August 6 saw 202 bolts from Kashimpur’s vaults, including unclear numbers of militants. Sherpur’s gates crumbled under thousands-strong processions, freeing 518 amid loot and flames.
By March 2025, Inspector General of Prisons Brig. Gen. Syed Md. Motaher Hossain pegged 700 fugitives at large, including 69 terrorism convicts; by June, that ticked to 724.
These escapees aren’t ghosts; they’re ghosts with agendas. Ansar al-Islam’s Jasimuddin Rahmani and Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Shafiul Islam Farabi, bailed out, now sermonise jihad against India and Myanmar. Shamin Mahfuz, rearrested in July 2025 for TTP links with cohorts like Asif Adnan and Rezaul Karim Abrar, exemplifies the revolving door.
Over 15,000 inmates, including 98 militants, walked free on expedited bail post-uprising. The regime rebrands them “Islamic scholars,” denying militancy โ even whitewashing the 2016 Holey Artisan IS attack as non-terror.
High-profile Islamist pilgrimages underscore the rot. On September 7, 2024, Al Markazul Islami feted Hamas’ Khaled Quddumi and Khaled Mashaal, plus Pakistan’s Mufti Taqi Usmani and Maulana Fazlur Rahman โ a red flag for Indian analysts.
Mamunul Haque’s 2025 Afghanistan jaunt, amid Hefazat-e-Islam’s caliphate push, signals deepening ties. Banned Hizb ut-Tahrir’s March 2025 “Khilafat” rally in Dhaka โ 2,000 strong, defying a 2009 prohibition โ waved jihadist flags unmolested. Social media posts from March 2025 capture the audacity: “Jihadists like Harun Izhar… now swagger freely.”
This isn’t resurgence; it’s revival under patronage. Yunus’s inner circle โ Law Adviser Asif Nazrul, Home Secretary Nasimul Ghani โ allegedly ISI-influenced, fast-tracks releases. Arms from 450 stations, ministers’ homes, and Ganabhaban (including 32 SSF specials) now bankroll terror, extortion, and murders. Analysts fear a “professional criminal-jihadist nexus” worsening pre-election.
Mobocracy’s Reign: Touhidi Janata and the Islamist fist
Enter “Touhidi Janata” โ the “unified Islamic populace” โ Yunus’s Frankenstein of mob rule. Under this banner, Hefazat-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami, and student militias like Islami Andolon Bangladesh enforce “moral policing”: Shaming vendors during Ramadan 2025, banning women’s soccer, and razing 80+ Sufi shrines. X footage from Hathazari Madrassa shows Hefazat spewing anti-Hindu vitriol.
Minorities bear the brunt. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council tallies 2,442 attacks from August 2024 to June 2025 โ temples torched, Ahmadi mosques razed, Hindus lynched near parliament.
Al Jazeera logs 2,000+ Hindu assaults in the first few weeks since Yunus’s rise, often “Touhidi”-branded. Women face harassment, with 4,200 rape cases (650 gang rapes) in early 2025 โ double 2024’s. Vigilantes storm stations to free abusers, live-streamed with impunity.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, “avoid all travel” zones fester with ethnic clashes, kidnappings, and smuggling by rival groups. Rohingya camps strain resources, breeding extremism. Social media users decry “genocide of Hindus” and “militant dominance.” Yunus dismisses communal angles as “political,” but the UN’s February 2025 report on July 2024 repression now flips: Interim-era abuses proliferate.
This mobocracy thrives on Yunus’s vengeance politics. Over 4,000 Awami League-linked arrests under “Operation Devil Hunt” โ a student militia raiding homes sans warrants. HRW accuses the regime of twisting anti-terror laws against Hasina supporters, jailing journalists and retirees. X post: “Yunusโs extra-legal Gestapo force.”
Global Alarms: From travel bans to diaspora cries
The world sees through the facade. Canada’s September 19, 2025, advisory โ “high degree of caution” โ warns of demos, clashes, strikes, and terror hits on Western haunts: Hotels, mosques, malls. Women: Shun solo travel, especially nights. Chittagong’s hills? Total no-go, per extortion and arms rackets.
“Extremists could strike anytime,” it cautions, validating social media fears of “Pakistanization” and โturning Bangladesh into Afghanistan.”
HRW’s October 8, 2025, blast: Yunus’s anti-terror tweaks gag dissent. UN probes 1,400 protest deaths, now eyeing interim vigilantism. Diaspora roars: September 16 Trafalgar Square rally demands Hasina’s return, slamming Yunus’s Awami ban. Economic nosedive โ $200B losses, FDI flight, 12% inflation โ amplifies unrest.
A Nation’s Reckoning: Reclaim or ruin?
Bangladesh’s revolution curdled into this abyss because Yunus prioritised power over principles. Releasing jihadists, arming mobs via neglect, and shielding “Touhidi” thugs isn’t reform โ it’s treason against 1971’s secular dream. As BNP demands polls by year’s end and teachers strike, the army chafes. Protests grip Dhaka: Shahbagh, Kawran Bazar โ explosive tinder.
The fix? Zero-tolerance: Recapture arms, jail enablers, enforce borders. Free elections, not vendettas. International pressure โ EU reforms, US accountability โ could tip the scales. But without a spine, Yunus’s bridge crumbles into caliphate quicksand.
Bangladesh, cradle of resilience, cannot afford this fall. The people โ not puppets โ must rise. Or the “Dark Prince” of extremism claims the throne.
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