Analysis, Bangladesh, Current Affairs, India, Opinion, Pakistan, Politics, Secularism, War

A Region Unravels: From the Indus to the Bay of Bengal, the Secular Order Faces Its Greatest Test

Iconus Clustus 25 April 2025

The Indus Treaty has collapsed. The Shimla Agreement lies suspended. From Pakistan’s proxy warfare to Bangladesh’s creeping Islamism and great power maneuvering, South Asia is entering not just a geopolitical spiral—but a civilizational eclipse. What we’re witnessing is the slow disintegration of the pluralist soul that once defined this region.

25 April 2025

I. Introduction: The Breaking of a Compact When India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty following the terror attack in Pahalgam—carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), a group with clear operational and ideological ties to Pakistan's deep state—it did more than nullify a water-sharing agreement. It shattered one of the few remaining symbols of post-Partition cooperation between the two nuclear-armed rivals. For decades, the treaty withstood wars, diplomatic breakdowns, and public rage. That it should now collapse in response to yet another incident of state-proxied terror speaks volumes—not only about India’s strategic posture but about the region’s crumbling secular compact. Now, that compact has fractured even further. In a retaliatory gesture of its own, Pakistan has suspended the Shimla Agreement (1972)—a foundational accord that once governed diplomatic protocols, bilateralism, and conflict resolution between India and Pakistan. If the Indus Waters Treaty was the hydrological pillar of cooperation, the Shimla Agreement was its diplomatic spine. Together, these two treaties formed the

last architecture of mutual restraint between nuclear neighbors. Their dual collapse signals a freefall into a pre-1970s strategic environment—one where war, not negotiation, is again the default setting. However, to treat the Treaty’s dissolution as a bilateral escalation alone would be myopic. It is better understood as the tremor before a regional quake. From the Indus in the West to the Bay of Bengal in the East, a new geopolitical alignment is taking shape—an alignment that threatens to undo the fragile, secular, and postcolonial order that had once offered a vision of stability. Across South Asia, terror proxies are resurgent, Islamist politics is infiltrating interim governments, and foreign powers are circling zones of instability under the guise of humanitarian concern. India, at the heart of it all, finds itself in a two-front dilemma. In the West, Pakistan continues to serve as an incubator for transnational jihadist ambitions. In the East, Bangladesh’s descent into political instability and Islamist resurgence—combined with creeping…

Bangladesh, Dr Yunus, Journalism, Liberation War, Politics, Secularism

Shahriar Kabir’s Pen Refused to Bow

Sherlock Holmes 22 April 2025

The Yunus regime stands condemned for unjustly imprisoning freedom fighter Shahriar Kabir, a steadfast symbol of secularism, on baseless charges. He is enduring torture behind bars and being denied critical medical care after experiencing a cardiac arrest. His plight underscores the blatant cruelty of this unconstitutional government, which serves the interests of war criminals and extremist leaders.

22 April 2025

It has been more than seven months1 since Shahriar Kabir, an eminent writer, journalist, filmmaker and intellectual of Bangladesh, was arrested by the unconstitutional interim Government2 led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus on false allegations. Unlike him, during this despicable Yunus regime, many journalists, writers and political-cultural activists are either behind bars, indicted on false accusations or flying the coop3. In the last seven months of 75-year-old Shahriar Kabir's imprisonment, he, who cannot move without a wheelchair, has faced grim conditions as Yunus's phoney Government shows a complete lack of rule of law, resembling the law of the jungle. Futility in case filing, multiple impertinent remands, hare-brained judicial process, and naked violation of the Prisons Act of Bangladesh are pointed out. Significantly, the Yunus Government is going ape to hinder the basic treatment process of Shahriar Kabir, which is considered a fundamental responsibility of the state according to the de jure constitution of Bangladesh. Even after the second cardiac arrest of

Shahriar Kabir in jail4, the Yunus Government fiddled with the treatment. The corporate media has not reported, editorialised, post-editorialised, or discussed Shahriar Kabir's sufferings in newspapers or on talk shows, and there is no patina of so-called intellectuals' or human rights organisations' statements. Only social media activists, secular bloggers, and a single news portal, BD Digest, have broken Yunus's iron curtain against the media5 to crack the news and are up in arms about the megalomaniac Yunus administration. Shahriar Kabir, a freedom fighter in Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971, dedicated his life to promoting and preserving the spirit of Bangladesh's liberation movement. He has been dry behind his ears for five decades of Bengali children's literature6. Being a nonpareil storyteller, his hearkening back to the wartime memoir and the bedrock of 1971 and writing in pellucid prose for young minds becomes the panacea for all communal and compromised ills. In his novels and short stories written for children, the fastidious…

Bangladesh, Dr Yunus, Opinion, Politics

Inside Yunus’s ‘meticulously designed’ theory

Ezaz Mamun 3 April 2025

Many world leaders believed that Dr Yunus’s Grameen Bank has the transformative power of microfinance, allowing millions to access credit and enhance their livelihoods. While this remains a debatable theoretical aspect, through Grameen Bank, Dr Yunus has built a strong network and engaged in lobbying with numerous leaders and institutions, some of which have garnered recognition for questionable activities.

3 April 2025

At the beginning, I want to point out an issue associated with quotas for jobs that some media outlets and certain citizens in Bangladesh view as the root cause of the current situation in Bangladesh.Bangladesh’s socioeconomic condition is characterised by significant disparities, with marginalised communities often left behind regarding opportunities and resources. The quota system for jobs was established to address this imbalance by ensuring representation for these groups, including ethnic minorities, women, and descendants of freedom fighters. However, all the quotas were revoked following a student movement a few years back. Following a court’s verdict to reinstate the quota system for jobs, students argued during the July 2024 student movement that it had transformed into a mechanism that perpetuated inequality and stifled meritocracy while depriving talented individuals of their rights, demanding an end to quotas for the descendants of freedom fighters. Initially, the motives behind the July student movement appeared straightforward. However, after months of observation, people in Bangladesh

are now convinced that the July 2024 movement was a facade aimed at undermining the country’s revered liberation spirit. Identifying the mechanisms behind the scenes from the movement’s outskirts proved challenging, as the cunning and ill-motivated student leaders mimicked national sentiments with ‘meticulously designed’ tactics and conspiracies. At the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in the United States in September last year, Bangladesh’s interim government Chief, Dr Muhammad Yunus, revealed that the mechanism for ousting Hasina was well planned. Dr Yunus stated, “It was a meticulously designed thing. It just didn’t happen suddenly. Very welldesigned. Even the leadership didn’t know (him), so they could not catch him.” He unveiled the mastermind behind these actions. By acknowledging this subterfuge, Dr Yunus categorically told us a hidden story of miscreants who are actively conspiring against Bangladesh. However, there is also an immense possibility that Dr Yunus is directly involved in the processes and conspiracy to oust Sheikh Hasina and her government. Dr…