https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21891/bangladesh-yunus-authoritarian
The silencing of Bangladesh’s media is not just about censorship — it is part of a larger transformation of the country into a breeding ground for radical Islamist politics that threatens the stability of the entire region.
By criminalizing the press, Yunus is dismantling the very institutions that could hold his interim regime accountable, while empowering Islamist groups that thrive in darkness.
Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladeshi franchise of Al-Qaeda, openly justifies murdering secular writers and bloggers by branding them “enemies of Islam.”
Yunus’s reliance on Islamist allies such as Jamaat-e-Islami undermines this role by pushing Bangladesh into a trajectory that will likely make it hostile to US interests.
If Bangladesh descends further into authoritarianism and Islamist radicalization, it risks becoming another Afghanistan — a sanctuary for extremist groups with transnational ambitions.
Washington cannot afford to remain silent while an unelected regime dismantles democracy and silences the media in Bangladesh.
Yunus has promised elections in February 2026, but his Islamist allies are already signaling their intention to sabotage the process. If the media remains silenced, if journalists remain in prison, the path is clear: Bangladesh will be robbed of its democracy and its people robbed of their voice.
Bangladesh stands at a dangerous crossroads. The persecution of journalists under Yunus is not merely an assault on freedom of expression – it is the deliberate dismantling of democracy itself. Every day that Monjurul Alam Panna and other journalists remain behind bars, Bangladesh moves closer to becoming another Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
If Yunus’s regime is not challenged now, Bangladesh will not just lose its democracy — it will proceed to export instability across South Asia.
For years, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been synonymous with the brutal silencing of dissent, turning his country into one of the world’s largest prisons for journalists. Today, shockingly, Bangladesh — once hailed as a moderate Muslim democracy — is following the same dangerous path under the unelected, military-backed rule of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Since the Islamist-backed coup of 2024 that installed Yunus in power, the country has witnessed an unprecedented assault on freedom of the press. Journalists have been dragged to jail under trumped-up charges, assaulted in courtrooms, and criminalized under the vague Anti-Terrorism Act. The once vibrant Bangladeshi media, long known for its resilience, is now suffocating under a regime that increasingly mirrors Taliban-style authoritarianism.