BNP and Hifazat: partners on a mission Members of Hifazat-e Islam carried out mayhem on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway in Narayanganj’s Signboard area as they clashed with the law enforcers in different parts of Bangladesh during the radical group’s violent shutdown on Sunday, Mar 28, 2021. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove Written By 16th May 2021 In Bangladesh, the looming shadow of Pakistan ceases to die. Despite 50 years of liberated existence and a decade of phenomenal economic and human development, the ghost of Islamic radicalism refuses to go away. The religious radicalism encouraged by Pakistani military junta to keep its stranglehold on its eastern wing before 1971 was defeated by resurgent militant Bengalee nationalism but it got a fresh lease of life after the 1975 coup and consolidated its grip with enormous patronage from military rulers, Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad.