Should the corrupt in government continue to reign, with Mohammad Yunus as an interim figurehead, a new government could be dominated by Razakars and BNP elements who are extremists.
Over the past five years, during her third term in office, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed increasingly began to seek an accommodation with the extremist elements who had, as Bengali Razakars, joined with the Pakistan Army in the genocide that the latter conducted in Bangladesh in 1971. Nixon and Kissinger joined with Mao and Zhou in backing the Pakistan military in its genocidal activities in what was then East Pakistan. The Razakars joined in the loot, rape, murder and mayhem of the Pakistan Army, in much the same way as some Ukrainians helped the Nazis in their brutal occupation of Ukraine during 1941-45 and joined in the killing of Russians under the supervision of the Nazis. Most escaped retribution as they surrendered to the advancing Allied forces in 1945, and correctly claimed to be against the Russians.
They were silent about their own actions during 1941-45, and only a few were identified and found guilty by the Allies of participating in the Nazi mass murder of Russians, Jews and Roma that took place during World War II. Given the extent of participation of Ukrainian participants of the 1941-45 genocide, very few were ever held to account for their crimes. As a whole, given the extent of participation of various nationalities in the genocide committed in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other countries during 1941-45, only a handful were held accountable after the war, Many of the rest (including citizens of Czechoslovakia) built prosperous careers in different countries after the war. As for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Razakars and the Pakistan Army, only a few have ever been held to account.
It is from the reaction of the descendants of the Razakars that the impetus came for holding a mass movement against the 10% (later reduced to 5%) quota in government jobs for the descendants of those who opposed the genocide in Bangladesh. As few Bangladeshis had actually joined the Mukti Bahini, the quota was unpopular within the entire student community. The students formed an “anti-discrimination” protest against the quotas that were announced by Sheikh Hasina in July. Overreaction by the police and subsequently the military led to anger within the student community that was taken advantage of by Razakar elements and a banned organisation that was still active, and which Sheikh Hasina unwisely had sought to covertly cultivate in her third term as Prime Minister. Leniency by Sheikh Hasina caused such extremists to regroup and become large enough to soon assume leadership over the anti-quota student agitation.
Razakar elements took control of the anti-Quota protests, leading to acts of arson, murder and other acts of violence of what had initially been a peaceful protest. Again the military and the police used extreme force on the demonstrators, killing several of them, although many more non-students from Razakar backgrounds. Non-Razakar students were already angry, and as for the Razakars, the leniency shown by Sheikh Hasina to them ensured that they had become stronger and more organised. A leopard does not change its spots, neither does an extremist. Such a truism was ignored by Sheikh Hasina in her third term. Fear and anger that she was trying to make Bangladesh a dynasty-run country were on display during the riots, which eventually forced Hasina to flee from Bangladesh at 45 minutes’ notice, which was given by an army that had its own share of extremists, including from Razakar families who in 1971 killed innocent Bangladeshis. Such was the consequence of Hasina softening her stance against Razakar families. This was in contrast to the strict accountability that was placed on them during her first and most of her second term.
By softening her stance against them during her third term, Hasina sowed the seeds of genocide directed against moderate Awami League descendants of freedom fighters and Hindu minorities. Many of them were tortured and hanged after the police and the military retreated to their barracks after Hasina went into exile. Should the corrupt in government continue to reign, with Mohammad Yunus as an interim figurehead, a new government could be dominated by Razakars and BNP elements who are extremists. If so, Bangladesh is headed for a continuation of the genocide just witnessed. Such a situation would cause unrest within the rest of the population, and lead to another protest movement, which would be put down with extreme violence by the uniformed services. The 1971 Liberation of Bangladesh would get reversed and be replaced by another genocide similar to what took place before Liberation in 1971.
Bangladesh would join Pakistan and Afghanistan as terror hubs. Sheikh Hasina through her corruption allowed the free flow of extremists into the uniformed forces, who got riddled with such elements as a consequence. If the democracies are to be rescued from the effects of a situation where freedom fighters, Hindus and moderate and patriotic Muslim elements in the Bangladesh population become the principal target of mob attack, a new Liberation War may need to take place. This would, as in 1971, liberate Bangladesh from extremists who would convert the country into another Afghanistan. Such a war would need to involve not just India but the US and other major countries as well. If the democracies shy away from another Liberation War, Bangladesh would go the way of Afghanistan, where Pakistan and China ensured that the Taliban returned to power in 2021 after President Biden abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban. Extremist associates will once again make Bangladesh a terror sanctuary, which if tolerated would in brief years hit the US and the EU, and not just India.