By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
A silent coup is unfolding in Bangladesh. Behind the façade of governance, an alliance of Islamist networks, foreign intelligence agencies, and ideologues is methodically dismantling the country’s armed forces. The orchestrator: Muhammad Yunus – once hailed as a Nobel laureate for peace, now presiding over an increasingly Islamist-leaning regime.
At stake is not just Bangladesh’s democracy but the stability of South and Southeast Asia.
A calculated dismantling of the military
The regime has initiated charges of “crimes against humanity” against 25 serving and retired military officers, including generals. They are accused under questionable circumstances and face trial beginning October 22, 2025. Reports indicate over 150 officers may soon be implicated – potentially encompassing the current chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
This purge appears aimed at neutralizing Bangladesh’s most secular institution: the Armed Forces. Analysts warn that the Yunus government’s goal is to replace it with an ideologically driven “Islamic Revolutionary Army”, akin to Iran’s IRGC – a parallel force loyal to an Islamist doctrine rather than the state.
Foreign hands and ideological convergence
Multiple intelligence assessments point toward Pakistan’s ISI and Turkey’s intelligence services as key external enablers. The ISI’s deep historical ties with Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist factions are well known. Now, with Ankara’s rising activism across the Muslim world, Turkey and Pakistan appear to be coordinating their outreach – offering financial, ideological, and logistical backing to Yunus’s inner circle and allied NGOs.
Through these networks, Islamist infiltration is advancing within Rohingya refugee camps, where Saudi and Qatari-funded organizations operate under the guise of humanitarian relief. Reports suggest these camps have become recruiting grounds for jihadist outfits targeting India’s Northeast and Myanmar’s Rakhine state – adding a dangerous cross-border dimension.
Eroding democratic institutions
The ongoing purge is accompanied by a disinformation campaign designed to discredit Bangladesh’s Armed Forces and intelligence services. For decades, institutions like the DGFI were instrumental in countering militancy – dismantling networks of HuJI-B, JMB, and ISIS affiliates. Now, those same institutions are under legal and reputational siege.
Incredibly, Army Chief General Waker Uz Zaman and his senior brass have remained uncharacteristically silent in public, fueling fear that their inaction is part of the script. Meanwhile, whispers in political and military circles assert that the Yunus administration plans to declare itself a “revolutionary government”, scrap the existing constitution, and arrogate unto itself sweeping powers to dismiss the president and military heads – just as is done in Iran. Under this plan, lawsuits against dozens or even hundreds of military personnel will be accelerated, many facing the death penalty.
Meanwhile, security has been suddenly tightened around the US Embassy in Dhaka amid intelligence warnings of a jihadist attack. If Islamist forces can manipulate or dismantle Bangladesh’s military – turning it into a politicized or sectarian instrument – they will not only dominate domestic politics, but export violence beyond Bangladesh’s borders.
Washington’s posture thus far has been dangerously complacent. While the US once partnered with Pakistan’s ISI in Afghanistan, that alliance birthed uncontrollable militant networks that later targeted American interests itself. The current drift in US policy – in ignoring Islamist advances in Bangladesh – risks repeating this error. Indeed, Erdogan’s Turkey is allegedly offering financial and logistical backing to Islamist organizations in Bangladesh, further exacerbating the security threat.
Bangladesh’s institutions are being hollowed out from within. The Yunus regime is launching legal, media, and administrative campaigns to defame and delegitimize the Army and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), while prosecuting current and past security chiefs. Many of these officers are being charged under exaggerated or fabricated allegations of human rights crimes, depriving the country of critical institutional memory and operational effectiveness.
Regional repercussions
Bangladesh’s internal transformation could reshape South Asia’s security geometry. A theocratic Bangladesh – ideologically aligned with Turkey and Pakistan – would undermine India’s eastern security flank and embolden Islamist movements across the Bay of Bengal arc.
For China, such instability offers both risks and opportunities: a weakened Bangladesh could become more dependent on Beijing’s economic leverage, while regional disorder could delay Indian-led connectivity initiatives.
For ASEAN states, particularly Myanmar and Thailand, the spillover of radical networks from Rohingya camps poses acute threats.
Western complacency
Despite escalating risks, Western powers have remained conspicuously silent. Washington’s strategic bandwidth appears consumed elsewhere, echoing the complacency of the 1980s when US reliance on Pakistan’s ISI during the Afghan jihad inadvertently created global terror networks.
Today, the Yunus regime benefits from the same kind of diplomatic indulgence – its Islamist pivot obscured by the aura of a Nobel laureate. But history warns that ideological radicalization masquerading as reform can destroy nations from within.
A fragile frontier
Bangladesh stands on the edge of an ideological abyss. The erosion of its Armed Forces is not merely a domestic purge; it is the prelude to a regional realignment that could empower Islamist forces stretching from Istanbul to Jakarta.
The international community – particularly India, the US, and ASEAN partners – must recognize this pattern early. The lesson of past complacency in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran is clear: silence in the face of ideological militarization breeds catastrophe.
Unless Bangladesh’s institutions are defended, the world may soon face a new Islamist axis anchored in Dhaka – destabilizing the entire Indo-Pacific theater.
(The writer is an award-winning journalist, writer, and Editor of the newspaper Blitz)
