India should keep Bangladesh close for fruition of Act East vision Subir Bhaumik Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Indian PM Narendra Modi
The violent protests orchestrated by Hifazat-e-Islam against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bangladesh visit that led to a dozen deaths in police firings, have driven home the rising surge of radical Islamist challenge faced by the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. Modi’s visit was just an excuse to intensify the agitation for regime change because the Hifazat has continuously raked up violent public protests since the Awami League returned to power two years ago.
First it was against the installation of statues of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman on his birth centenary. Then the Hifazat encircled the French embassy and burnt President Emmanuel Macron’s effigies over his comments on Islam following the beheading of a schoolteacher who had shown caricatures of Prophet Mohammad to his students.