The script is getting tired, but the actors keep playing their parts. Across Bangladesh, shrines are being systematically ransacked under the conveniently righteous banner of the “Tawheedi Janata.”
Despite a trail of destruction, the attackers are not hiding in the shadows; they are staging victory laps.
While local Jamaat-e-Islami footprints are stamped all over the vandalism, the party’s leadership routinely deploys its favourite weapon of predictable denial.
Meanwhile, the role of the police in this lawless theatre remains less of a mystery and more of a farce, watching from the sidelines as political youth wings moonlighting as morality police hijack the rule of law.
In the recent spectacle at the shrine of Hazrat Shah Ali Bogdadi in Mirpur, where a group of people equipped with truncheons launched an assault under the laughably transparent guise of an “anti-drug operation.”
Jamaat-Shibir operatives were front and centre, mimicking a similar “cleansing ritual” conducted just a week prior under the leadership of Sajjadul Miraj, a member secretary of the Dhaka city North unit Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal.
Analysts question whether these assaults are truly religiously motivated or simply covers for extortion, turf wars, and political score settling.
Law enforcement officials routinely claim they are “outnumbered.” Additional IGP Khandaker Rafiqul Islam assured the public that officers have been instructed to be strict.
Yet independent sources reveal a far grimmer reality: since August 2024, at least 98 shrines have been attacked, leaving three dead, 475 injured, and 44 abandoned. The violence is concentrated in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, with Cumilla, Narsingdi, and Dhaka among the worst affected.
Data shows 61 percent of attacks stem from ideological differences, followed by local disputes, political opportunism, and committee feuds.
The brutality extends beyond vandalism. In Rajbari, Narsingdi, Sirajganj, and Goalanda, attackers have exhumed graves and removed bodies.
Researcher Aftab Alam Jilani of the World Sufi Organisation blames Wahhabi, Salafi, and Kharijite ideologues, noting Jamaat-Shibir’s opposition to Sufi traditions.
He stresses that the most damning aspect is police silence, branding their failure to act against open attacks as a crisis demanding immediate investigation.
The pattern is clear: organised groups mobs attack shrines under flimsy pretexts, political groups deny involvement, police claim helplessness, and victims are left without justice. With shrines desecrated, devotees injured, and families pressured into compromise, the crisis reflects not only religious intolerance but also a collapse of governance.
Until law enforcement breaks its silence and accountability is enforced, Bangladesh’s shrines will remain vulnerable to violence and neglect.
Attackers at Shah Ali’s shrine yet to be caught
The hunt for the Mirpur shrine attackers has yielded plenty of names but zero handcuffs, as the local police continue their fine tradition of moving at a glacial pace.
Law enforcement now admits that a mob of 60 to 70 people orchestrated the Thursday night raid on the Shah Ali shrine during its Gurubar rituals on Thursday night.
Among the identified ringleaders is Lutfar Rahman, a man who gracefully balances his resume as the former vice-president of Ward 9 Jamaat-e-Islami with his day job as president of the Mirpur Baisakhi Supermarket Shop Owners Association.
Despite having clear video evidence, the authorities seem content to wait on paperwork. Deputy Commissioner of Police for the Mirpur Division, Md Mostaq Sarkar, casually noted on Saturday that they are waiting for the shrine’s management board to file a formal written complaint before taking real action.
On Saturday night, Shah Ali Police station finally recorded a case filed by an injured woman in the attack.
While explicitly confirming that Jamaat-Shibir operatives were heavily involved in the assault, Sarkar offered the standard, exhausting reassurance that a “drive is underway” to catch them.
Adding to the chorus of hollow bureaucratic warnings, Shah Ali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Jahangir Alam chimed in to declare that “no one can take the law into their own hands,” promising that work is actively underway to bring the rioters to justice. Naturally, the political theatre would not be complete without a blanket denial, which Dhaka City North unit Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Selim Uddin swiftly provided, predictably wiping his party’s hands clean of any involvement whatsoever.
No progress in Kushtia pir murder probe
Over a month has passed since the brutal public execution of a Sufi spiritual leader in Kushtia, and the official investigation has stalled into a predictable state of paralysis.
On 11 April, a weaponised crowd descended upon ‘Shamim Baba’s Darbar Sharif’ in Philipnagar Union in Daulatpur if Kushtia, using a highly effective, pre-announced accusation of “insulting the Quran” to justify a frenzy of arson and vandalism.
By the time the dust settled, the head of the shrine, Pir Abdur Rahman, known to his followers as Shamim, had been savagely beaten and hacked to death.
While the local community openly points fingers at a contingent of Jamaat-e-Islami members, justice remains entirely out of sight.
When confronted with this catastrophic failure of law and order, Kushtia Police Superintendent Mohammad Jasim Uddin fell back on the now-weary official script, pleading that his forces were simply “outnumbered” and unable to cope with the sheer volume of attackers.
To maintain the appearance of progress, the department has touted the arrest of exactly three individuals out of a massive, coordinated crowd.
Meanwhile, as the masterminds remain free, the police continue to offer their standard, empty refrain that an “operation is underway” to identify the rest of the killers.
Goalanda case amicable
The body of Sufi mystic Nura Pagla was exhumed from the Darbar Sharif in Goalanda, sparking outrage and a violent clash on September 5 last year. During the attack, Khadem Russell Molla (28) was beaten to death and his body burned, while several policemen, including the Officer-in-Charge, were injured and government vehicles vandalized.
In response, police filed two cases – one for obstructing government work and attacking officers, and another for Russell’s murder and the burning of his body.
Both listed 4,000 unidentified people as accused. Separately, Nura Pagla’s family and the shrine committee filed cases in Rajbari Court, naming top local political leaders, mosque imams, and grassroots agitators. However, the family later withdrew their case after reaching a compromise.
Inspector Md Rashedul Islam, the investigating officer, stated that efforts are ongoing to identify those involved using video footage and technology.
He confirmed that 19 people have been arrested in a joint operation by the PBI and district police, with eight suspects giving confessional statements under Section 164.
Goalanda Ghat Police Station OC Md. Shafiqul Islam added that officers are keeping a close watch on the shrine premises.
On November 13, 68 days after the incident, Shirin Begum, Nura Pagla’s sister-in-law, filed another case in Goalanda Cognizance Court against 96 named individuals and 500 unidentified persons. The main accused was Khandaker Abdul Muhith Hira, a retired principal of Goalanda Kamrul Islam College, alongside leaders of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Awami League. Yet just 12 days later, Shirin withdrew the case, with her lawyer confirming that she had reached a local compromise with the defendants.
Two-phase attack in Sherpur
Sherpur’s encounter with shrine violence played out with the devastating predictability of a two-act tragedy, met with the equally predictable paralysis of local authorities.
On November 26, 2024, a coordinated mob descended upon the shrine of Murshidpur Khwaja Badruddoja Haider, affectionately known as Doja Pir, in Sherpur Sadar Upazila, igniting a violent clash that left multiple devotees bleeding.
The brutality claimed its first life the following day, when Hafez Uddin succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment in Dhaka. Sensing absolutely zero resistance from law enforcement, the attackers returned the very next morning to finish the job with a second wave of assault.
Yet, despite a body count and back-to-back raids, the official investigation into the case has effectively stalled out, buried under bureaucratic indifference.
When questioned about this catastrophic failure to protect citizens and their places of worship, Sherpur Additional Superintendent of Police Md Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan offered a masterpiece of empty bureaucratic reassurance.
Rather than detailing any actual progress in hunting down the killers, he casually promised that “necessary security” would be provided whenever the devotees get around to rebuilding the ruined Murshidpur Darbar Sharif from the ashes and resuming their activities.
