The return of ‘Top Terror’ in post-revolutionary Bangladesh

Abstract

As news of Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India spread across Bangladesh on the 5^th of August 2024, crowds took to the streets to celebrate. Soon after, members of the police were lynched, police stations looted, and some inmates freed from prisons. With the prospects of a ‘free and fair’ election on the horizon, there are signs Bangladesh’s politics is returning not to 2009, but to 1991. A crucial difference between these dates lies in the relative power of domestic security agencies and other ‘violent entrepreneurs’. Since the revolution a patchwork of gangsters, underground leftists, pirates and terrorists, all of whom were once controlled by the threat of extrajudicial practices or incorporated within the ruling party, have become active once again. This paper will explore the nexus of crime and politics in post-revolutionary Bangladesh, focusing on the re-emergence and prospects of ‘top terror’ in the nation’s politics.