Al-Qaida’s Renewed Confidence in Bangladesh — The Diplomat

On August 10, the United Nations Security Council released a report that raised “concern about AQIS [al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent] trying to exploit Bangladesh to establish cells there.” Although the U.N. report mentioned Bangladesh in only one sentence, it triggered enormous and somewhat surprising media coverage in Bangladesh, with several news publications drawing attention to Muslim radicalism in the country. Police also swung into action. They instructed field-level police to “remain on high alert.” In recent months, Bangladesh Police have pointed to an upsurge in militant activities in the country. In June 2026, they issued a terror alert, warning of an attack on the Police headquarters. Media reports from last year drew attention to Bangladeshi nationals joining the Tehreek‑e‑Taliban Pakistan (TTP). On August 12, police found a handmade pressure‑cooker bomb in Dhaka’s Savar area. Bangladesh’s response to militancy has swung between extremes. The Sheikh Hasina regime securitized dissent itself, most visibly when it banned the opposition-aligned Jamaat-e-Islami as a terrorist organization just days before Hasina’s ouster. It used the “Islamist terrorism threat” to marginalize the opposition and crack down on dissent. This served to secure external legitimacy and approval for its dictatorial rule — a dynamic I find paradoxical. In over a decade of experience tracking Muslim radicalization in Bangladesh, I have seen how militancy was manipulated rather than…