Taslima Nasreen's online war against Yunus amid 'jihadi rampage' in Bangladesh: 'Jihadists’ favourite man'

Taslima Nasreen was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of multiple fatwas calling for her death in the aftermath of the publication of her novel Lajja.

• Taslima Nasreen criticizes Yunus' government for communal violence in Bangladesh.
• Nasreen claims police didn't protect Hindu youth Dipu Chandra Das from lynching.
• She demands Yunus' Nobel Peace Prize be withdrawn and calls for his imprisonment

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Amid unrest in Dhaka, Bangladeshi writer and activist Taslima Nasreen has been launching a series of sharp attacks against Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus' government.

On Tuesday, in a post on X, she said, “The foul-mouthed, India-hating Osman Hadi has been buried beside the grave of India’s rebel poet, the poet of humanity and equality, Kazi Nazrul Islam. Could Kazi Nazrul Islam not have been spared this kind of disrespect?”

Prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi died at Singapore’s General Hospital on Thursday.

Hadi died from gunshot injuries sustained during an assassination attempt in Dhaka last week.

Earlier, Nasreen alleged that Hindu youth Dipu Chandra Das, who was brutally lynched by a mob in Bangladesh, had been falsely accused of blasphemy by a Muslim coworker at his factory in Mymensingh district.

She also claimed the horrific incident unfolded despite Dipu being under police protection. “The government has said that Dipu Das’s murder has no connection to communalism. Completely fabricated. A lie. While beating Dipu Das to death, the killers were chanting “Allahu Akbar.” Watch the video. Then, after stripping off his pants and leaving Dipu naked, when they hung him from a tree and burned him, they were still chanting “Allahu Akbar.” In the name of Islam, these jihadists killed a non-Muslim,” she posted on X.

She also questioned the role of the police. The writer asked whether they returned Das to the mob out of extremist zeal or if militants overpowered them.

"Dipu Chandra Das was the sole breadwinner of his family. With his earnings, his disabled father, mother, wife, and child survived. What will happen to them now? Who will help the relatives? Who will bring the mad murderers to justice?,” she questioned in the post.

She also accused Yunus of being tacitly accepted — and even protected — by radical Islamist forces. According to her, Yunus’ silence or political positioning during periods of Islamist violence has helped extremists gain legitimacy.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of the Hindu worker, the interim government announced on Saturday.

"Mr. Yunus, wearing a cap on his head, went to the jihadi’s funeral and wailed loudly. But he did not spend a single sentence on Dipu’s horrific murder. When the news of Hindu killings in Bangladesh spread in foreign media, Yunus immediately ordered the police to arrest some criminals, even if only for show. The police rounded up ten people and displayed them as arrested," Nasreen said on X.

Who is Taslima Nasreen?

Born in Mymensingh, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1962, Nasreen trained as a doctor. She gained global attention in the early 1990s because of her essays and novels with feminist views and sharp criticism of what she characterised as "misogynistic religions". However, she was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of multiple fatwas calling for her death in the aftermath of the publication of her novel 'Lajja'.

She moved to India in 2004 after spending a decade in Europe and the US. She then spent the next three years in Kolkata until some controversial passages from her book 'Dwikhandita' provoked large-scale violence on the streets of the city in November 2007. She was forced to move from Kolkata, first to Jaipur and subsequently to Delhi where she was initially placed under house arrest. Currently, she is based in Delhi on a long-term resident permit and multiple-entry visa.

Why is Taslima attacking Yunus' government?

Earlier, Nasreen called out the International Crimes Tribunal's death sentence for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She questioned why Muhammad Yunus, and his aides haven't faced similar scrutiny after last year's student uprising that toppled Hasina's regime.

She also accused the Yunus government of committing "crimes against humanity" following Hasina's ouster. She also demanded that the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Yunus in 2006, be withdrawn, and that he should be jailed for life.

Hasina, the 78-year-old Awami League chief, currently living in exile in Delhi, was ousted on August 5 last year following massive anti-government protests.

“Is it just to call Hasina a criminal for giving orders to shoot students during the July-August 2024 uprising, when Muhammed Yunus and his jihadi forces who did the same are allowed to get away,” said Nasreen.

She also called Yunus the jihadists’ favourite man. “It is on his orders that the Hindu leader Chinmoy Das is rotting in jail without any crime. If Chinmoy Das were outside prison, Hindu morale would rise—and he will not allow that to happen,” she said.