Written By ABM Nasir
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, was a secular, nationalist leader who, like Atatürk, championed secular values, and like Martin Luther King Jr., sought peaceful means for self-rule until war became inevitable.
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Leading his people to freedom on December 16, 1971, after 24 years of West Pakistani oppression, he returned from imprisonment to govern a nation devastated by war. Its infrastructure was shattered, six million homes were destroyed, industry was dismantled, currency was wiped out, and over 100,000 firearms were in civilian hands.
Mujib faced the daunting task of rehabilitating millions of refugees and rebuilding a war-ravaged, crippled country, which Time magazine likened to “the morning after a nuclear attack.” Yet, he remained committed to his tasks until his assassination.
These monumental challenges were compounded by a sustained campaign of hostility and disinformation from pro-Pakistani elements within Bangladesh, the Nixon–Kissinger US administration, pro-Pakistani Muslim states, Maoist China, left-wing insurgents like Gonobahini, and segments of the domestic right-wing and pro-Maoist press. Henry Kissinger and Ambassador Alexis Johnson famously branded the country an “international basket case,” undermining its global standing.
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During the 1974 famine, Washington blocked emergency food aid under PL-480, citing Bangladesh’s trade with Cuba—a pretext not applied to Egypt, Argentina, or Brazil, and widely seen as Kissinger’s retribution for Bangladesh’s independence. The disinformation echoed tactics from the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Iran’s Mossadegh, where staged protests eroded public trust.
In Bangladesh, propaganda hit a low with the BASANTI incident, in which journalists allegedly paid a disabled young woman from a major right-wing paper to pose in a fishing net to dramatize famine. Western media ran the photos without verification. These combined pressures, acts of sabotage, and smear campaigns paved the way for the brutal killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family on August 15, 1975—an event backed by the United States, rooted in Cold War geopolitics.
Nearly half a century later, in July–August 2024, Bangladesh witnessed another meticulously orchestrated coup, this time Islamist-led, disguised as a quota reform protest, and allegedly funded by the U.S. Deep State under President Joe Biden. In a September 26, 2024, Clinton Global Initiative speech, Muhammad Yunus openly described Hasina’s ouster as “meticulously designed,” crediting an Islamo-Maoist student leader as the mastermind and revealing a coalition of anti-Indian, anti-Awami League fringe groups.
The role of Bangladesh’s military and security agencies became clear immediately after Hasina’s ouster: soldiers were seen aiding mobs in demolishing Bangabandhu’s statues and Liberation War memorials, chanting “Nara-e-Takbir, Allahu Akbar” alongside Islamist groups, and celebrating with Jamaat-e-Islami activists. Jamaat-e-Islami is widely believed to have orchestrated the burning of around 450 police stations and the killing of hundreds of officers during the regime’s collapse.
A similar strategy was used by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the movement against Hosni Mubarak, where about 90 police stations were set ablaze to create security vacuums for Islamist militias to seize control. Jamaat’s role as a leading backer was openly acknowledged by General Walker, who, in his first speech after Hasina’s ouster, invoked the Jamaat Ameer’s name while bypassing the largest party at the time, the BNP.
The Islamist–leftist nexus was on open display when radical Hefazat-e-Islami leader Mamunul Haque, Maoist figure Zunaid Saki, and Dhaka University professor Asif Nazrul appeared together on the same platform in front of the vandalized Ganabhaban, the official residence of Sheikh Hasina.
The Mujib assassination in 1975, while tragic, could not entirely destroy Bangladesh’s secular democratic foundations built on the country’s bloody Liberation War. But the August 5, 2024, Islamo-Maoist coup, backed by powerful foreign interests, has already inflicted a more far-reaching transformation on the country’s political and cultural landscape.
Since August 5, 2024, and in the days following the interim government’s takeover under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh has experienced what many describe as a deliberate cultural purge or Islamization campaign—bearing similarities to both China’s Cultural Revolution and Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
- The toppling of Mujibur Rahman’s statues and symbols: Over 1,500 statues and murals, including the golden statue at Mrityunjayee Prangan, were destroyed, signaling a rejection of the secular legacy.
- The rise of Islamist forces and weakening of secular institutions: Formerly banned groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and Hizb-ut-Tahrir resurfaced as organized actors, implicated in violence and intimidation.
- The attacks on cultural heritage and Sufi shrines: More than 100 shrines and over 1,000 secular monuments were vandalized or burned.
- Destruction of Dhanmondi 32 and historical sites: The historic residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was demolished, reflecting ideological cleansing.
- Rewriting history, erasing secular identity: Textbooks and museums are being altered to downplay the Liberation War and secular contributions, recasting national narratives around Islamic identity.
- Purges across education, judiciary, media, and government: Secular and minority teachers, judges, and officials have been forced out; academics, journalists, intellectuals, and artists with secular values face suppression.
- Threats and censorship of women, arts, and expression: Public events, festivals, and women’s activities have been curtailed under Islamist pressure.
- Government inaction and human rights concerns: Few perpetrators have been prosecuted, signaling tacit approval or complicity.
The overall pattern mirrors a cultural-Islamo revolution: dismantling secular symbols, restructuring institutions, and suppressing dissent to foreground a conservative Islamic-national identity. This transformation is driven less by a central ideological blueprint and more by empowered Islamist mobs, political opportunists, and state acquiescence, resulting in authoritarian consolidation.
The 2024 coup has thrust Bangladesh into more than a mere political reshuffle; it poses a profound test of national sovereignty. By permitting foreign agendas and covert alliances to shape its political trajectory, the country risks becoming a pawn in the broader great-power contest across the Indo-Pacific. The wounds of August 2024 may take years to heal, yet one question endures: Is this the cost of a “strategic partnership,” or the price of relinquishing control over its future?
ABM Nasir is a Professor of Economics at North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC.