Govt must protect Sufi shrines

The violent attack on the shrine of Hazrat Shah Ali Baghdadi (RA) in Dhaka’s Mirpur on Thursday night was not an isolated act of hooliganism. It was another episode in a growing pattern of religious intimidation that is steadily eroding Bangladesh’s pluralist heritage.

As they do every week, devotees had gathered at one of the capital’s oldest Sufi shrines for prayers and spiritual observance. What followed was an hour of chaos and brutality. Worshippers were beaten, property vandalised, and panic spread through the shrine compound. Among the victims was a woman carrying her two-month-old child, who was reportedly struck multiple times while trying to shield her infant. Disturbingly, all this unfolded within metres of parked police vehicles, raising troubling questions about the role and responsiveness of law enforcement. The immediate details are alarming enough. Witnesses, local shopkeepers and even police insiders identified the attackers as activists linked to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir. The local Jamaat lawmaker denied the allegation, claiming police had been conducting an anti-narcotics drive. Yet senior officers from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police directly contradicted that account.

More worrying, however, is the broader pattern this attack reflects. According to research by Maqam: Center for Sufi Heritage, at least 97 shrines across Bangladesh were attacked between August 2024 and the end of last year. Those attacks left three people dead and about 468 injured. This is not random unrest. It points to an increasingly emboldened hostility towards the Sufi tradition, one of the most enduring strands of Bangladesh’s religious and cultural life. For generations, Sufi shrines have attracted people across class and social divides. Attacks on these shrines are therefore attacks on the country’s social fabric itself.

The state’s response so far has been deeply inadequate. Police reportedly had not received a formal complaint, even a full day after the assault in the Hazrat Shah Ali shrine, despite the violence occurring in public and in front of numerous witnesses. Authorities should not wait for the victims to file complaints before responding to a mob attack. The government has both the authority and the obligation to act proactively. Bangladesh’s founding ideals are rooted in pluralism and tolerance. That inheritance must be protected.