Militant Resurgence in Bangladesh Stokes Fear Among LGBTIQ+ and Rights Activists

A recent surge in Islamist militant activity in Bangladesh – from bold street marches by banned groups to arrests revealing links with international terror networks – is raising alarms among human rights defenders and the beleaguered LGBTIQ+ community. Activists warn that these developments, unfolding amid political turmoil, could herald a return of violent extremism that previously targeted secular voices and sexual minorities with deadly consequences.

Political Turmoil Breeds Extremism

Bangladesh’s ongoing political turbulence has created space for Islamist extremists to regroup. In late August 2024, soon after a tumultuous change in government leadership, militants grew brazen. In one stark incident, a mob of young men stormed the Dhaka home of Tureen Afroz, a prominent lawyer who prosecuted 1971 war criminals. They interrogated her for not wearing a hijab and even shaved her head before holding her hostage for days. The assailants – posing as anti-government protesters – demanded she renounce the war-crimes verdicts she helped secure, repeatedly stabbing her legs with pencils during the ordeal. “My 16-year-old daughter was with me. I was terrified,” Afroz recounted, describing her fear that the intruders might harm her family. The bold attack on a high-profile jurist has been cited by observers as a signal that Islamist militants feel emboldened amid the chaos, exploiting any power vacuum to pursue their agenda.

Officials and experts have noted that Bangladesh’s Islamist militancy, largely kept in check in recent years, is showing signs of revival. Militant groups have been active in the country for decades, but a concerted counterterrorism crackdown in the late 2000s had subdued them. Now, with tensions rising ahead of elections and the opposition confined, fringe extremist outfits are again “gaining strength” and stepping up activities. Western and regional security agencies fear that continued political unrest is creating a breeding ground for radicalization.

Banned Groups Resurface on the Streets

Several outlawed Islamist organizations have re-emerged publicly, underscoring the breadth of the militant threat. In March 2025, the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir – an Islamist group calling for a global caliphate – attempted a large “March for Khilafat” in downtown Dhaka. Hundreds of members and supporters rallied near the national mosque with black flags and slogans before police used batons, tear gas and sound grenades to disperse them. At least 36 activists were detained after clashes in which stones were hurled and a dozen people, including journalists, were injured. The incident showed that Hizb ut-Tahrir, though officially banned since 2009, has managed to organize and inspire followers in the capital – a worrying development for authorities and minority communities alike.

Security officials report that at least ten Islamist militant outfits are currently active in Bangladesh, some with international links. These include long-known jihadist groups and newer networks:

Shahadat-e al-Hikma (SAH): A militant outfit formed in the early 2000s, now reviving its activities in parts of the country.
Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB): A jihadist group responsible for synchronized nationwide bombings in 2005, which remains active underground.
Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB): An extremist vigilante group once aligned with JMB.
Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B): A group of Afghan-war veterans banned in 2005, believed to be regrouping.
Hizb ut-Tahrir: The transnational Islamist organization seeking a caliphate, banned in Bangladesh but still drawing supporters (evident in the March 2025 rally).
Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)/Ansar al-Islam: An Al-Qaeda–linked outfit infamous for assassinating secular bloggers and LGBT activists, now operating covertly.
Allah’r Dal (“Party of Allah”): A militant offshoot active in the country’s southwest, which has tried to stay under the radar.
Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya: A newer jihadist group formed in 2019 that recruited young men and sent them for militant training in remote areas.
Ansar al-Islam: (see Ansarullah Bangla Team, above) the name adopted by the AQIS-linked network responsible for targeted killings.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): The Pakistan-based Taliban franchise, which has recently attempted to recruit Bangladeshi youths and spread its ideology locally.

Notably, the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) – a group previously not known to operate in Bangladesh – has gained a toehold. This month, counterterrorism police arrested two men for alleged ties to TTP. One arrestee, 48-year-old Shamin Mahfuz, is a former JMB commander who became a key organizer for Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya. Investigators say he had been in jail on terrorism charges and, after release, gravitated to TTP’s network. The other suspect, 33-year-old Md. Foysal, confessed to being inspired by TTP’s ideology and even traveling to Afghanistan via Pakistan in late 2023. According to case documents, Foysal and a companion left Dhaka in October 2023, crossed into Afghanistan through the Torkham border in early November, and spent about a week there. Foysal returned to Bangladesh via Dubai later that month, while his companion stayed and was killed in a Pakistani military strike in Waziristan. He also named local collaborators – including an “Engineer Imran Haider” – who have been recruiting young Bangladeshis into TTP and spreading extremist propaganda online. With these two latest arrests, Bangladeshi authorities have now detained at least two individuals in recent weeks for alleged TTP links, a development analysts call unprecedented.

At the same time, Bangladesh’s militant scene is increasingly entangled with global jihadist networks. On July 4, Malaysian authorities announced they had dismantled an Islamic State (ISIS) fundraising network involving Bangladeshi migrant workers. Malaysia’s police chief said 36 Bangladeshi nationals were detained in raids since April for spreading ISIS ideology and collecting funds via social media and mobile banking channels. The group had been targeting Bangladeshi expatriate laborers, using WhatsApp and Facebook to recruit followers to the ISIS cause and soliciting donations through digital wallet transfers. Some of the money was funneled to ISIS remnants in Syria and also to operatives inside Bangladesh. Five of the arrested men in Malaysia have been charged with terrorism, while others are set for deportation back to Bangladesh. Intelligence officials in Dhaka acknowledge the risk that returning radicalized workers or deported suspects could bolster domestic militants, and say they are working with foreign counterparts in the investigation. The Malaysia case highlights how Bangladeshi extremists are leveraging global diaspora networks – and it underscores the transnational dimensions of the threat facing the country’s vulnerable communities.

LGBTIQ+ Community in the Crosshairs

Among those most alarmed by the militant uptick is Bangladesh’s LGBTIQ+ community, which has historically been singled out by jihadist groups. Militant propagandists often label LGBTQ activists “enemies of Islam,” and several extremist outfits explicitly include sexual and gender minorities on their hit-lists. Bangladesh’s LGBT community, already forced largely underground, fears that a militant resurgence could lead to renewed violent assaults like those that shook the community a few years ago.

Their fears are not unfounded. In April 2016, terrorists affiliated with Ansar al-Islam (the local Al-Qaeda branch) brutally hacked to death Xulhaz Mannan, a 35-year-old gay rights activist, and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in a Dhaka apartment. Mannan was the editor of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first LGBTQ magazine, and had been organizing tolerance-building cultural events. The two men were murdered with machetes by assailants posing as couriers who forced their way into Mannan’s home – an attack later claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group that praised Mannan’s killing, calling him “a pioneer of promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh”. A Dhaka anti-terrorism tribunal eventually convicted six members of Ansar al-Islam for the double homicide, in a verdict delivered in 2021. But at least four of those militants, including a former army major believed to be the mastermind, remain fugitives.

The slaughter of Mannan and Tonoy was part of a wider wave of extremist violence from 2013 to 2016, when militants targeted secular bloggers, academics, religious minorities, foreign aid workers – and finally LGBT activists. By late 2016, nine high-profile people had been hacked to death in Bangladesh by Islamist extremists, for reasons ranging from “promoting un-Islamic beliefs” to championing women’s or LGBT rights. “The killings…have sent a shiver down the spine of academics, activists, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Bangladesh,” a Human Rights Watch researcher wrote at the time. Those chilling events prompted many LGBTQ activists and allies to go into hiding or flee the country. In the months after Mannan’s murder, several LGBT activists discreetly left Bangladesh or ceased their public advocacy, fearing they could be next. Rights groups noted that police often failed to protect those under threat, and in some cases even advised LGBT organizers to self-censor for their safety.

Now, with militant groups visibly regrouping, the community’s hard-won but fragile gains have come under renewed threat. “Visibility can be life-threatening,” a Bangladeshi LGBT organization had warned – a caution that feels acutely relevant again today. Unlike in some countries, homosexuality is still criminalised in Bangladesh under a British-colonial era law, and there are no anti-discrimination protections for sexual minorities. In fact, government officials have at times echoed the very prejudices militants use to justify violence. After Xulhaz Mannan’s murder in 2016, Bangladesh’s home minister remarked that advocating gay rights “does not fit in our society” – effectively blaming the victim’s activism for the attack. Such attitudes, coupled with the absence of legal recognition for LGBTIQ+ individuals, leave the community exceptionally vulnerable. LGBTQ people cannot openly seek police help or protection without risking harassment themselves, activists say, creating a climate of impunity that militants may exploit.

“It’s a terrifying situation,” said a Dhaka-based human rights advocate, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “We’re reliving the nightmare of 2016 – the threats are back, and the protection is not.” Many in the LGBTIQ+ community have again curtailed public events and online visibility in recent months. Some community members have reported being followed or surveilled by unknown men – tactics militants used before carrying out past attacks. Social media in Bangladesh has also seen an uptick in hateful posts targeting “anti-Islamic” activities, which include women’s empowerment seminars, cultural festivals, and any hint of LGBTQ-themed gatherings, according to digital rights monitors. This rising tide of extremist rhetoric is amplifying fears that hardliners are preparing to strike again.

Human Rights Defenders at Risk

It is not only LGBT activists who feel the danger. Wider civil society and human rights defenders are also in militants’ crosshairs. Extremist factions in Bangladesh have a track record of assassinating secular or liberal figures – from bloggers like Avijit Roy (killed in 2015) to professors, publishers, Sufi Muslim leaders, and religious minorities. The recent attack on barrister Tureen Afroz underlines that even those who worked to bring justice for past atrocities can become targets for revenge. Afroz, who had prosecuted Islamist perpetrators of the 1971 genocide, was likely singled out by extremists resentful of the war crimes trials. During the harrowing home invasion, the attackers tried to coerce her into stating that “all the judgments of the International Crimes Tribunal were wrong”. They taunted her for her allegiance to the secular state and hinted at a broader purge of people like her if an Islamist revolution were to occur. “We cannot leave the house… But I will not go anywhere. I will stay in this country,” Afroz defiantly told media afterward. Her resolve is echoed by others in Bangladesh’s embattled civil society, even as they take precautions. Several prominent writers and activists have reported receiving anonymous threats. Some NGOs have quietly relocated staff outside the country as a precaution in recent weeks, according to one international rights group.

Bangladesh’s human rights advocates point out that militants often strike at symbols of free expression and tolerance – whether a blogger meetup or an LGBT community gathering – as a strategy to terrorize and silence dissent. The consequence is a chilling effect on open discourse. “If people are too afraid to speak, the extremists win by default,” explained Professor Ali Riaz, a Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University. He noted that the “space for dissent is shrinking” under twin pressures: an authoritarian political climate on one hand, and violent extremism on the other. This squeeze is particularly dangerous for those working on sensitive issues like minority rights, gender equality, or secularism.

Official Response and Outlook

Although state security agencies and law enforcement in Bangladesh have consistently made strong public statements against militancy, the reality on the ground is far more alarming. Despite high-profile counterterrorism operations and pledges of “zero tolerance,” militant leaders and many of those convicted or accused of militant activities remain at large. Delays in the trial process, failures to implement court verdicts, and an absence of accountability for militant violence have all contributed to a sense of impunity for extremist groups.

During the previous government’s tenure, trials against militants were often delayed, and the sentences—especially in cases involving killings—were rarely enforced. Even when verdicts were delivered, implementation remained inconsistent and incomplete. This has allowed many militants involved in deadly attacks to escape meaningful punishment.

The situation has grown more precarious following the dramatic changes in Bangladesh on August 5th. Since then, hundreds of individuals accused in militancy-related cases have been released on bail. According to prison authorities, over 300 such individuals—including suspects, those under trial, and even some sentenced to life imprisonment—have been granted bail in recent months. The BBC has reported that at least 300 accused in militancy cases have received bail, while Prothom Alo revealed that around 700 prisoners—including convicted militants and those on death row—are currently absconding, with at least 20 missing firearms still unrecovered.

What is particularly troubling is that these identified militants are not facing new legal actions or tighter restrictions; rather, some are now exerting open pressure on the government. Investigative reports by 71 TV have documented how militant groups have mobilized mass gatherings known as “Tawhidi Janata,” who have engaged in acts of mob justice, violence, property destruction, and even incitement of suicide among people of different religions and beliefs. There have been multiple cases where public announcements—often over loudspeakers—have been used to accuse individuals of religious insult, followed by mob attacks and the burning of entire villages and businesses. The lack of justice and accountability in these cases has only emboldened the militant networks.

This environment is particularly dangerous for LGBTIQ+ people, feminists, human rights defenders, writers, and other liberal voices. The ongoing absence of proper justice not only undermines public trust but also strengthens the hand of those seeking to impose violent, exclusionary ideologies in Bangladesh.

References

Additional Mainstream and International Sources:
7. Human Rights Watch: “Bangladesh: Surge in Killings of Secularists, Others”
8. BBC News: “Bangladesh gay rights activists hacked to death”
9. Al Jazeera English: “Bangladesh’s LGBTQ community fearful after killings”
10. The New York Times: “Editor of L.G.B.T. Magazine and Friend Are Stabbed to Death in Bangladesh”
11. Dhaka Tribune: “36 Hizb ut-Tahrir men held after clashing with police in Dhaka”
12. Amnesty International: “Bangladesh 2022”
13. Illinois State University (Ali Riaz): “Militancy in Bangladesh: Trends and Tactics” (for background; quoted in multiple international media)

Militant Resurgence in Bangladesh Stokes Fear Among LGBTIQ+ and Rights Activists