“Bangladesh: Why Muhammad Yunus Is Scared”, Open the magazine, January 16, 2026
“THIS YEAR HAS BEGUN for Bangladesh with the sort of unpredictability and uncertainty that dominated last year. The political crisis set off by the removal of the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and its replacement by an unconstitutional and therefore illegitimate regime headed by Muhammad Yunus continues, with little likelihood of any positive change in 2026.
A good deal has, of course, happened in the months that have elapsed since the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024. But if citizens had expected any takeaway from the change, of an encouraging sort, they have been disappointed. Politics has clearly been on a slide, with mobs creating havoc across the country. Well-planned agitation against the foundational principles of Bangladesh has been deployed in undermining the state, indeed nearly every structure of not just politics but of administration and society as well.
In the months since August 2024 all symbols of Bangladesh’s War of Liberation, a period in history Bengalis have consistently been proud of remembering and celebrating, have come under assault. Such potent symbols of history as the home of the nation’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the monument to the inauguration of the country’s first government, known as the Mujibnagar Government, have been demolished. Across the country, ageing freedom fighters and their homes and families have come under mob assault. Former ministers, lawmakers, judges of the Supreme Court, chief election commissioners, theatre activists, academics, journalists and others have been in prison on concocted charges. They have been afforded little to no opportunity of any recourse to justice…….”
Read full article at openthemagazine.com
