“Bangladesh remains a ticking time bomb due to Awami League ban”, First Post, April 10, 2026
“Bangladeshis, alongside Indians and Americans, received the February 12, 2026, Bangladesh election results with relief. Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a landslide victory over Jamaat-e-Islami and its 11-party alliance. The BNP, which boycotted the 2024 elections, took just shy of half the popular vote and close to two-thirds of the seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, Bangladesh’s parliament.
The BNP’s triumph put aside concerns about what a Jamaat-e-Islami-led Bangladesh might mean. Muhammad Yunus, the unelected Bangladeshi leader appointed by the ringleaders of the 2024 protests that ousted Sheikh Hasina, used his unchecked power in pursuit of an Islamist agenda. He released terrorists from prison, empowered 1971 genocide supporters, and sought to give Islamists the upper hand, especially after banning the Awami League. Whether Yunus is an Islamist or simply was pursuing a personal grudge after the Awami League’s investigation of his own corruption is irrelevant.
Neither New Delhi, Washington, nor any other capital should feel relief. Bangladeshis fled to the BNP because they feared the Islamist, Al Qaeda-friendly intolerance of Jamaat-e-Islami. But, just as the Awami League grew arrogant in power and let corruption and abuses slide, so too will the BNP. Indeed, while the Awami League remains banned today, the BNP experienced its own periods of repression and persecution. What Muhammad Yunus did in 2024 and 2025 was not much different from what Hussain Muhammad Ershad did to the BNP following his own coup in 1982……”
Read full article at firstpost.com
