Opinion | Democracies Must Coordinate To Dismantle Yunus-Islamist Linkages In Bangladesh
The progressive-minded citizens of Bangladesh need to be vigilant about the Islamist linkages of the Yunus regime. It is in Bangladesh's overall interest to be close to secular India. India has always been behind the people of Bangladesh
History bears out that the course of diplomacy is too strange to visualise. Relations between no two states have ever been permanent; friends today can be foes tomorrow, and vice versa. This historical truism finds yet another manifestation in the newly emerging relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Observers say that since the overthrow of the democratically elected Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh last year, the interim regime led by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh has been moving rapidly to improve the country’s ties with Pakistan, for long its sworn enemy.
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During the meeting between Yunus and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the D-8 Summit in Cairo in December 2024, Yunus called for a resolution of the contentious issues between them. On his part, Sharif called for more strategic relations between the two “brotherly nations".
In January this year, a delegation of senior Bangladeshi military officers visited Pakistan. The Bangladeshi navy participated in Pakistan’s annual multilateral naval exercise. There have also been reports that a delegation led by the director general of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General Asim Malik, recently visited Dhaka.
Besides, the Yunus regime has lifted traditional restrictions on the hitherto banned organisations, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hefazat-e-Islam (HeI), and Ansar al-Islam. These organisations are now expanding their networks in the country. They have intensified their persecution of Hindus, Christians, and all other religious minorities.
Bangladesh today is a haven for activists of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. They can be seen chanting “Khilafat, Khilafat" at the country’s famous Baitul Mukarram Mosque. Dilly Hussain of HuT’s UK chapter is very active in the country. He has visited Bangladesh. He has been in constant touch with the leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by some Yunus loyalists.
Needless to mention, Hussain is a British-born citizen of Bangladeshi origin. He is a deputy editor of the Islamist website 5 Pillars. Hussain has a history of propagating anti-India and anti-Hindu rhetoric. Such elements are roaming free in the country. The Yunus regime has systematically placed Islamist radicals in key government, judicial, and military positions to shield them.
The Pakistani army and ISI provide the radical Islamists in Bangladesh financial and logistical support. The Yunus regime has lifted mandatory post-landing inspections for cargo arriving from Karachi.
The observers warn New Delhi must remain vigilant about the activities of the Yunus regime. This regime has released many radical Islamist elements from the country’s prisons. These elements have been notorious for their anti-India sentiments. Given the pattern of the Pakistani establishment’s behaviour, the current regime in Islamabad might use these anti-India elements based in Bangladesh to destabilise our north-eastern region.
India’s political command could direct its highly professional intelligence and security agencies to coordinate with their counterparts in the US, Israel, and other advanced democracies and dismantle the linkages the Yunus regime has with radical Islamists. All democracies are sure to come along in combating such linkages, for radical Islamism is a common threat to their shared values.
It would be naïve on the part of any democratic state to view the March 7 police-governmental “crackdown" on the HuT in Bangladesh as the Yunus regime’s intention to keep the radical Islamists away from itself. The crackdown was just a staged spectacle to hoodwink the advanced democratic world into believing that the current regime in Dhaka is civilised and it has no links to any radical Islamists.
The observers add that the progressive-minded citizens of Bangladesh need to be vigilant on the Islamist linkages of the Yunus regime. It is in Bangladesh’s overall interest to be close to secular India in its neighbourhood. India has always been behind the people of Bangladesh. The citizens of Bangladesh today could see in India’s friendship their future and multifaceted development. India has provided billions of dollars in loans to Bangladesh. It has provided Bangladesh food and power. It has provided Bangladesh raw materials for the garment industry, the mainstay of its economy.
The author is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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