Sheikh Hasina Wajed

The Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Bangladesh on journalists, educators, atheists and religious minorities. Unfortunately, “the present regime, in denial about religious extremism, finds this trend to be politically expedient,” writes Sumit Ganguly, a professor at Indiana University and also a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. “The ostensible need for sweeping powers to curb such religious violence enables the regime to further aggrandize its political power.” Bangladesh, an independent state since 1971, is retreating from its early secular and democratic beginnings. The government cannot equivocate on extremism or deem political opponents and minorities as expendable. Ganguly warns that extremism allowed to flourish in the country of 156 million will eventually turn on those in power and spread to India and beyond.