As Bangladesh prepares for the long-awaited national election and aspires to democratic renewal, it should reflect more than the future leadership. The country needs to focus on what kind of society we want to become. The vandalism of Sufi shrines in Noakhali and Sunamganj, looted Hindu homes in Rangpur, violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts, assassination of political activist, and media offices set ablaze in Dhaka, all these point to a worrying direction. Although the incidents and actors may look separate such as mobs, political groups, religious extremists, and even opportunistic criminals, they all set a common narrative of fear, instability, and the collapse of trust.
It is important to remember that strengthening democracy and building peace on the foundation of collective amnesia will be a disaster for our nation. While we denounce the brutality, violence, and human rights violations of the previous regime, it is equally important for us to remain unchanged by rejecting any sort of violence ourselves. No justification for mob violence by the name of ‘pressure group’ or ‘people’s anger’ is acceptable. Such actions make peace fragile, break public trust, and destroy our aspiration for a just society.
There are different peaceful and constructive ways to protest, condemn, deconstruct, and challenge any ideology, regime, decision, system. Instead of following peaceful approaches, burning symbols or portraits, destroying historical buildings, and setting fires at media offices, only deepen the devastation and division. Over time, such actions breed fear, break trust, fuel intolerance, and sow grievance that gradually build a great wall of impediment on the way to lasting peace. Tangible peace needs dialogue, resilience, collaboration and deliberate efforts to rebuild trust and hope.
As there is no silver bullet, therefore, understanding the underlying factors of the causes of crisis is the primary step if we would like to craft peace-centered policies. Experts point to poor governance, weak institutions, religious extremism, radicalisation, political instability, fabricated information are some of the key factors contributing to the ongoing fragile situation.
The aftermath of political violence, from the assassination of Sharif Osman Hadi to torching media houses, illustrates a breakdown of people’s trust in state institutions. When people start thinking that formal systems and democratic institutions cannot deliver justice and protect their rights, they tend to take self-administered justice including mob justice. Given the circumstances, solely relying on formal justice is insufficient to heal society and rebuild trust among people. While it is crucial to hold all perpetrators accountable through due legal procedures, at the same time, it is also very important to run reconciliation mechanisms. For instance, after the Rangpur mob attack, when the Hindu families came back home and found their ransacked homes and looted heirlooms, there was no initiative taken for reconciliation.
Many of the people who were involved in Dhanmondi-32 attack and arson at the media houses were youths or students who lost their family members, companions, and beloved people killed by the state during the July uprising in 2024. Therefore, their rage is not irrational and it was never processed. One of the key mistakes we made was failing to create a compassionate space where they could share their trauma, express anger, talk, listen, and slowly heal through mental health support, storytelling, anger management, mentorship, art, dialogue, and scriptural reasoning.
Analysing the violent incidents, it is evident that the responses from police and local administration are often delayed. For instance, the Sunamganj and Rangpur mob violence clearly portrayed slow response, flaws in early warning mechanism, and poor local level intelligence and prevention strategies. Therefore, it is important to focus on fixing the gaps and develop community-based approaches to act proactively before violence escalates. Along with security sector reform, it is essential to equip the security personnel with advanced training in de-escalation and non-lethal crowd control to avoid loss of lives and fatalities.
Debunking misinformation and disinformation are very vital to maintain stability during this fragile transition of Bangladesh. The absence of a coherent strategy has made the digital space a breeding ground for information disorder. Consequently, online unrest, hatred, propaganda, extremist views, harmful narratives, and sociopolitical tensions are growing fast. To tackle such digital wildfire of fake news, it requires a collaborative approach among tech-savvy police units, fact-checkers, religious leaders, youths, and community leaders. They can be trained with digital media literacy, advanced skills and tools to identify fabricated news, and help to stop spreading misleading content before those leads to violence.
Interfaith and intercultural dialogue have great potential for restoring trust. Local government can collaborate with leaders of different faiths, NGOs, civil societies, and community leaders to organise regular dialogues. They can altogether work to strengthen harmony, build trust, support peace mediation, and transform conflicts. During tense situations, they can coordinate with the law enforcement and local administration to ensure the safety of the minority neighborhoods, religious sites, shrines, etc. Particularly, during religious festivals and traditional cultural events, their engagement is significant to maintain public confidence, prevent any unwanted incidents, and pacify agitated people if any hatred content spreads online or offline. Such actions do not only give a powerful message for peace but also reduce the chances of violence.
Strategic youth engagement can convert the energy of violent youths into social good. Youths, including those who participated in violent activities and extreme protest-driven approaches, can be trained in community leadership, inclusive dialogue, and conflict transformation skills. It will involve them in a role where they will support the victims, rebuild the trust, and become an active stakeholder of peacebuilding. It will eventually give them the essence of ownership in the peace process and help them to see themselves as part of the solution. When youth get a space to address their voices, they are more likely to engage more in constructive civic engagement and democratic practices. Therefore, establishing effective youth councils linked to city corporations or local government bodies can institutionalise youth engagement and give them a platform to raise their concerns. It can be a good alternative to clashes on the streets with demands or public disorder.
We do not need to start anew, instead peacebuilding wants us to learn, adapt, and build on what exist. We can take lessons from global best practices and customise those to our own social, political, and cultural contexts. If government, universities, and think tanks can collaborate with relevant entities worldwide, we can co-create solutions such as establishing reconciliation commission, grassroots dialogue, community-based peace approaches, mediation practices, and peace-centered policymaking.
We have suffered a lot due to hatred and intolerance, and we must not let our dreams into nightmares. Therefore, it is high time we choose the path of inclusion, harmony, and solidarity for an inclusive national future. We must be aware of getting into trapped in a loop of violence, grief, revenge, and intolerance. In the fire of this loop, everyone is at risk, including those who set the fire.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author
The writer is a Development Professional and Peacebuilding Expert. He can be reached at: [email protected]
