2001: minority persecution. 2002: state killings. 2004: grenade attacks and arms trafficking.
Think it couldn’t get worse? It did. Much worse.
🔴 World’s Most Corrupt Country — Five Years Running
Transparency International — the organization that measures corruption worldwide — awarded Bangladesh a record no country wants:
2001 to 2005 — five consecutive years — the world’s most corrupt country.
Five years. Consecutive. Number one. So many countries in the world, so many governments — and the most corrupt was us.
🔴 Hawa Bhaban — The Invisible Parallel Government
At the epicenter of this corruption was one name — Tarique Rahman, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s son. And his political office Hawa Bhaban was an undeclared parallel government.
Ordinary people called him “Mr. Ten Percent.”
- Want a government transfer? Contact Hawa Bhaban.
- Want a big tender? Pay Hawa Bhaban.
- Want your people in the police and administration? Hawa Bhaban is the address.
The state apparatus and the government had become two different things. The government ran from the Secretariat, but real power lived in Hawa Bhaban.
🔴 August 17, 2005 — Simultaneous Bombings in 63 Districts
Remember this date.
Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) — the militant organization that had grown under BNP-Jamaat rule — carried out simultaneous bombings in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts.
63 districts. Simultaneously.
A JMB bomb device recovered after the August 17, 2005 coordinated bombings across 63 of Bangladesh 64 districts
The same day.
When a militant organization becomes powerful enough under a government to set off bombs across the entire country at once — that’s not just an intelligence failure, that’s patronage.
Post-1/11 investigations revealed — Tarique Zia’s indirect patronage was behind this extremist rise.
🔴 Complete Politicization of Administration
Party loyalists in the police. Party loyalists in administration. Pressure on courts. Fear in media. Suppression of civil society.
Every institution of the state — the ones meant to protect people — had been turned into servants of the party. Inside a democratic country, an authoritarian structure was being built.
Minority persecution. Militancy. Grenade attacks. Arms trafficking. World’s top corruption. Nationwide bombings. Destruction of the state apparatus.
This was 2001 to 2006 — six years of BNP-Jamaat rule. And when this rot reached its peak, October 2006 arrived — the moment the volcano erupted.
Next and final episode: Logi-Boitha’s blood-soaked streets, the UN’s warning, and that historic night — January 11, 2007. The day Bangladesh went on the operating table. ⏭️
📎 Sources: Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (2001-2005), Dhaka Tribune, International Crisis Group, Bangladesh court proceedings
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