Fundamentalist Islamist parties and groups, including the Hizbut Tehrir and the Jamaat-e-Islami, are said to have destroyed 105 Sufi shrines across Bangladesh since the time the Mohammad Yunus-led interim authority grabbed power in August last year.
So far, only 23 arrests have been made by the Yunus regime, even as a destructive attack on a Sufi shrine in Dinajpur was reported in the last 24 hours—the torching of the Mazar of Rahim Shah Baba Bhandari in the Ghoraghat area of Dinajpur district.
Unchecked violence perpetrated by the fundamentalist forces, or the Touhidi Janata, has been continuing with no intervention by either Yunus, a Nobel Peace laureate, or the Home Ministry functioning under Lieutenant General (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, who is said to have strong right-wing sympathies.
Earlier, soon after the Awami League regime was ousted, there were waves of attacks against the minority Hindus.
Alarmed by the rising tide of extremist Islamist forces in general and the attacks against Sufi shrines and other cultural establishments in particular, a key Sufi leader Shamsuzzaman Chowdhury Sazib told Northeast News over the phone that “the interim authority’s silence tantamounts to sanction to the Islamist groups. Indeed, these militant and extremists are being backed by the Yunus-led authority”.
Bangladesh has 12,000 Mazars and about 17,000 shrines dedicated to pir sahebs or Sufi spiritual guides.
While figures on the countrywide number of Sufi followers varies between 3 to 6 crore, the series of attacks that began almost a month after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime on August 5, 2024, have caused financial loss in crores.
On September 6 last year, a huge mob comprising students, hardline Islamists and ordinary locals led by a mosque imam stormed the Hazrat Shah Poran shrine in Sylhet after Friday prayers.
This was followed by the use of social media where the Islamists called for more attacks on Sufi shrines and khanqas (sufi places of worship).
A wave of attacks took place against the Dewanbagh Darbar Sharif in Narayanganj, Yajoora Darbar Sharif in Nangalkot and Rashidiya Darbar Sharif shrine in Kumarkhali.
While October and December 2024 did not witness any attacks on Sufi shrines and pir dargahs, several places of worship were destroyed in November 2024.
This violence spilled over to January and February 2025.
On February 20 and 21, even as urs (observation of the death anniversary of Sufi saints) was on, two shrines were destroyed in Noakhali and Manikganj.
On January 8, a 200-year-old shrine was hit in Mymensing when urs and qawwali were on.
In a Press conference held in January 2025, Bangladesh’s many Sufi organisations united under the banner of the Global Sufi Organisation (GSO).
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At that time, the Sufis listed 80 attacks against shrines and other places of worship. Since then, there have been 25 more incidents.
“We know the Home Advisor’s background. We know we will not get justice,” said GSO Executive Committee member Shah Noore Hasan Dipu, even as the outfit is now “planning to reach out to international organisations and western embassies in Dhaka to impress upon the severity of the attacks”.
Sufi social programmes such as waaz mahfils (advice-giving congregations) have also largely stopped as a consequence of the violent attacks.
“Sufi followers in Bangladesh have no protection and security. We live in terror. Our basic demand now is that we must be left to live in dignity,” said Sazib.
