Battle for soul of Bangladesh far from over

One of the most pressing issues facing Yunus’ interim government is the restoration of law and order. Since the uprising, the police — once a tool of state terror under Hasina — have largely disappeared from the streets fearing violent retribution from the public. Police stations have been set ablaze, and in their absence, student-led groups have taken up roles in maintaining local order. In a country where state violence was once the norm, the people’s reliance on these grassroots organisations rather than formal law enforcement is a telling indicator of the deep mistrust in state institutions, although, over the span of two months, we have also witnessed that dynamic of trust taking on significant concessions and alterations in the questions of nationalism, the phantom of separatist movements and the security discourse enveloping the Chittagong Hill Tracts [CHT].

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Perhaps above all else, the Chittagong Hill Tracts have historically been a flashpoint for military-police dynamics, reflecting tensions between the indigenous populations, popular local political parties and civil society members on one side, and Bangladeshi state authorities, the military, and the plainland settlers serving as vanguards of the Bengali-Bangladeshi nationalist project on the other. The military’s sustained and in fact, expanding presence in the CHT, justified as means of ‘maintaining order’, has led to systemic human rights violations and a climate of permanent, pervasive fear, discontent, animosity, and distrust, and for good reason.

As per a report by the Human Rights Support Society, in the month of September alone, 28 were killed in 36 different incidents of mob lynching across Bangladesh, with 14 others injured. Political violence claimed another 16 lives and injured 706. In their report, HRSS refers to a wild-wild-Western state of affairs that is still developing, including factional clashes within the two major political parties, targeted violence against ethnic and religious minorities, attacks on journalists, extrajudicial killings, and worker protests. Overnight, netizens witnessed footage of defenceless Tofazzal and Shamim Mollah, mercilessly beaten to their deaths in the two top public universities.

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This is especially true when we consider how global neoliberal agendas intersect with local political upheavals. Like the Arab Spring, derailed by counter-intelligence tactics, surveillance capitalism, and imperialist interventions, Bangladesh faces the risk of its uprising being neutralised by the coalescence of state surveillance, corporate interests, and international capital. The convergence of military intelligence, former Awami elites, and foreign backers — including both regional powers and multinational corporations — threatens to undo the revolution’s hard-won gains by appealing to reactionary fears and mobilising mobs against progressive forces.

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