BANGLADESH EMERGES AS A NEW HOTBED OF TERRORISM

The unlawful and puppet regime led by Dr. Yunus Watches is in Apathy, Untouched and Untroubled!!!

Terrorism is the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, often for political, religious, or ideological goals. It's a method of spreading fear and influencing governments or populations through acts of violence or the threat of violence.

In a stunning revelation that underscores the growing vulnerability of South Asia to transnational jihadist networks, Malaysian authorities have arrested 36 Bangladesh’s nationals accused of running an Islamic State-inspired terrorist recruitment cell aimed at destabilising Bangladesh. The arrests, carried out by the Royal Malaysian Police between April and June 2025, mark a significant escalation in the global operational footprint of Islamist groups such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and ISIS.

According to News18 and corroborated by Malaysia’s Home Ministry, the detained individuals were found to be actively spreading extremist ideology, recruiting operatives, and soliciting funds to support violent insurgency against the lawful government of HPM Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka and deposed her from power on 5 August 2024. These revelations point to an increasingly organised and ideologically charged strategy wherein jihadist networks are exploiting labour migration routes, undocumented workers, and financial loopholes to build operational bases abroad.

Malaysia, with over half a million Bangladesh’s migrant workers—many of whom are undocumented—has emerged as a crucial node in this network. Intelligence suggests that extremist recruiters are preying on vulnerable migrants, often targeting them in mosques, hostels, and worker dormitories. These clandestine cells serve not only as sites of indoctrination but also as logistical hubs for the broader transnational jihadist infrastructure.

Senior intelligence officials cited in the CNN-News18 report warn that this incident is part of a disturbing global pattern. Similar operations have previously been uncovered in Saudi Arabia, Italy, and Singapore. In 2019, Saudi Arabia deported 14 Bangladeshi’s nationals after discovering hidden weapons. A 2021 investigation in Italy revealed that a network of NGOs was funneling funds to JMB-linked madrassas. Singapore expelled 26 Bangladeshis in 2022 for allegedly planning attacks during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit.

Following Bangladesh's domestic counter-terrorism crackdown in 2016, many JMB operatives relocated to Malaysia, Qatar, the UAE, and Italy to rebuild and expand their networks. Meanwhile, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar remain an unchecked breeding ground for radicalisation by JMB and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

The regional threat matrix extends further. In 2023, Indian security forces apprehended 19 JMB operatives who had crossed into India through the Bangladesh–Myanmar border—a known infiltration route. These militants were reportedly linked to earlier attacks such as the 2014 Burdwan blast and the 2018 Bodh Gaya bombing attempt.

This widening arc of militancy has gone largely unchallenged by Bangladesh’s interim leadership. At the centre of this troubling inertia stands Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who assumed power following the conspitorial student-led protest and subsequent military intervention in August 2024. Nearly a year into his unelected regime, Dr. Yunus has remained startlingly indifferent to the gathering storm of religious extremism.

On 27 June 2025, Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail declared that Malaysia would not serve as a staging ground for foreign militant operations. He revealed that the arrested Bangladeshis were part of a coordinated effort to topple their home government through radical Islamist insurrection, operating under the ideological umbrella of ISIS.

The implications of this revelation are not limited to Malaysia. Analysts warn that similar jihadist plots are likely active in other diaspora hubs—including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and even Western nations like the UK, Canada, and Australia. With host countries unaware or overwhelmed, these radical networks thrive in the shadows, often masked under the guise of community organisations or faith-based charities.

In the wake of Bangladesh’s 2024 regime change due to American deep state CIA, the nation has witnessed a discernible surge in radical Islamic militancy. Extremist factions have seized on the political vacuum to push for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. On 20 August 2024, AQIS issued a statement titled "Bangladesh – The Emerging Hope of Supporting Islam for the Muslim Masses" via its propaganda wing, As-Sahab Subcontinent, celebrating the toppling of Sheikh Hasina and urging continued jihad to institute Islamic governance.

According to The Jamestown Foundation, the Yunus administration now faces a constellation of crises: the resurgence of militant Islam, growing sectarianism, and increasingly hostile geopolitical fault lines. Religious minorities—particularly Hindus and Bangladesh’s founding political party Awami League, its leaders, workers, supporters, et al—have borne the brunt of this new wave of persecution.

Dr. Yunus, once celebrated for pioneering microcredit by manipulation, now presides over a nation in peril. His newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), a direful offshoot of horrific Jamaat-e-Islami has failed to gain meaningful popular support. Instead, it has embarked on a vengeful campaign against the Awami League, repressing opposition, silencing dissent, and dismantling the very democratic architecture it promised to restore.

Indian scholar Brahma Chellaney, writing in Nikkei Asia (October 2024), issued a prescient warning:

"Amid military-backed regime change and rising authoritarianism, Bangladesh is witnessing an alarming resurgence of radical Islamism, abetted by state apathy and systematic suppression of dissent."

Worse still, Dr. Yunus appears intent on codifying this authoritarian drift. Reports suggest he is preparing to unveil a controversial “July Charter” that would abolish the 1972 Constitution which is core basis of Bangladesh’s brutal birth in 1971, dissolve the national armed forces, and replace them with a paramilitary outfit ominously dubbed the Islamic Revolutionary Army (IRA). This charter also aims to formalise the establishment of a permanent "Revolutionary Government," with Yunus assuming unchecked powers.

In what is now being called the "Londongate Conspiracy," Yunus reportedly met with BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman in June 2025, securing a pact to indefinitely suspend elections and prosecute President Shahabuddin Chuppu and Army Chief General Waker Uz Zaman for alleged collaboration with Sheikh Hasina although he is also an operative of Jamaat-e-Islami like horrific political party.

General Waker, who had publicly vowed in August 2024 to restore democratic order, now finds himself alarmingly mute. Political commentators have cautioned that if general elections are not held with Awami League’s spontaneous participation by December 30, 2025, Bangladesh risks sliding into indefinite autocracy.

As if political turmoil and extremist threats were not enough, Bangladesh now faces international scrutiny for alleged complicity in importing wheat looted from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. According to Reuters, Ukraine has issued multiple diplomatic warnings to Dhaka and is now preparing to lobby for EU sanctions against Bangladeshi entities involved in the illicit trade.

Ukraine’s ambassador to India, Oleksandr Polishchuk, told Reuters that despite repeated communications, Bangladesh has failed to respond, thereby exposing itself to potential punitive action. If verified, these allegations risk severing vital economic ties with the EU and further isolating Bangladesh on the international stage.

All the while, Dr. Yunus appears insulated from the crises engulfing his regime. Detached, indifferent, and impervious to the creeping chaos, he continues to consolidate power under the veneer of so-called reform. His apathy in the face of mounting terrorism, international scandal, and internal disintegration is not merely political negligence—it is complicity.

Bangladesh today teeters on the edge of an abyss. What was once a model of South Asian pluralism and democratic aspiration under HPM Sheikh Hasina’s able and dynamic leadership is now at risk of becoming a regional hub for jihadist proliferation and ideological tyranny.

The rise of the Yunus regime represents not just the erosion of democracy but the systematic dismantling of the post-1971 secular national ethos. Without urgent international intervention and internal resistance, the flames of radicalism and despotism may consume the republic entirely.

The clock is ticking. The world must no longer look away.

Written by Anwar A. Khan 

Bio: Anwar A. Khan, a 1971 freedom fighter to establish Bangladesh and a political analyst, remains committed to writing about international affairs and the political landscape of Bangladesh from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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