Although his politics was not directly linked with any terrorist activities, Sohorawardy is considered to be the first political leader of Bangladesh region to use musclemen in politics. He had a thug named Meena Peshwary who was used to foil meeting of his opponents. In fact Sheikh Mujib was recruited by Sohorawardy for his (Mujib's) such quality. Sohorawardy went to Faridpur to address a public meeting there. Another group arranged a meeting nearby. Mujib with some of his friends foiled the meeting. Sohorawardy was so impressed by Mujib's capacity of using muscles in politics that he took him to Calcutta. (Abul Hasim: In Retrospect)

As Mujib grew up rapidly in Bangladesh politics, so grew up the use of musclemen. These groups used to control the universities mainly by their bodily powers (arms were not that available at those days). They killed a young bright student of the department of Chemistry in Dhaka University Campus in 1969. Probably it was the first political killing in Dhaka University campus. However, these did not have any relation with extremism or organised terrorism.

Extremist ideas and groups began to sprout during the last days of erstwhile East Pakistan. Different leftists groups loyal to Russia and China began to recruit their followers from mainly bright students. Most of them had extremist philosophy. A extreme group of people started their armed exercise in a village called 'Nakshal' in the border region. Their influence was not that prominent before the liberation war.

After the independence of Bangladesh the situation changed and our student politics jumped into extremism due to the following reasons:

- Firearms became widely available because many freedom fighters did not surrender their arms probably because they did not want to lose the power that they provide. Moreover there were some listed criminals who took part in the war and wanted to use their newly acquired weapon in carrying out criminal activities.

- Due to the endless corruption, nepotism and autocracy of the post-independence government, the young generation who fought against a very powerful army and earned independence was totally frustrated. Mujib stopped all peaceful means of express their frustration and anger. Shiekh Mujib could not change his muscleman like nature even when he was holding the highest position of the country. He in fact unleashed the rein of terror in Bangladesh during his regime.

Extremist ideas and groups were in the most germinating condition during this time. They were trying to establish communist rule by armed revolution. They spread their wings even over the Armed Forces. When Mujib was killed in 1975, this group considered it as a golden opportunity to capture state power. They were involved in numerous coups and counter coups in the period from 15th August to 7th November 1975.

In a coup in 7th November, which was initiated by these extremist groups under the leadership of Colonel Taher, the ring leader of the communist extremists, Ziaur Rahman was installed in power. He was fully aware of the activities of these groups and its consequences. He later controlled them with strong hands.

However, when he tried to form his own political party, he recruited many leaders and activists from these extremist groups. Although Ziaur Rhaman was able to root out extremism and terrorism Bangladesh, armed goons, hatred of the leftist extremist politicians and intellectuals towards Islam and few isolated groups managed to survive.

After Ershad's seizing of power, the extremist leftists found new hope of revival. Some of them were even included in his cabinet. The others tried to revive with the assistance of secular forces like Awami League. There are allegations that the front leaders of the extreme terrorists used to play dual role in Ershad regime. They used to work with anti-Ershad movements in public, keeping good liaison with Ershad in private by supplying strategic information about the movement. They used to be highly paid by Ershad for their services.

Due to fall of communism in Russia, the leftist leaders faced a serious problem of selling utopian ideas to their grass root level activists. They turned their weapons to rising Islamists. It worked in favour of Ersahd, India and secular political parties. The country experienced massive media and physical attacks on the Islamists during the last few years of 1980s. It served Ershad by creating division among the parties involved in the movement for democracy. Islamists were one of the key partners of that movement. BNP, the main fighter of that movement is historically known as pro Islamic. It served India, because India considers the Islamists as the strongest opponent of her economic, cultural and political aggression. It served secular Awami League, because it was paving the way for her to grab the state power.

After the fall of Ershad and victory of the moderate nationalists with the help of Islamists in 1991 general election, the former leftist extremists heard the bell of their final shut down. There was no hope for establishing socialism or communism in any way. The fund flow that they used to receive from the socialist and communist countries began to dry. It was the question for economic survival of the leftist leaders most of whom did not have any known income source. On the other hand, Awami League lost its last hope of going to power. Fallen Ershad was trying to do anything to avoid his trial of mass corruption. It ended up with another coalition among the former leftist extremist, fallen Ershad, frustrated Awami League and RAW. This axis of evil found new accomplices from the new age 'bank robbers' who robbed billions of Taka from public bank as bank loan mostly by bribing Ershad and his family members. They started a massive media and armed attack on the Islamists.

They took the advantage of press liberalisation and started the publication of dozens of daily newspapers within very short time. The bank robbers required the help of media to refrain the government from taking action against them by keeping it under pressure. India needed it for creating and maintaining a chaotic situation in Bangladesh to hinder her emergence as an economic tiger. Some of the newspapers were even funded directly by the Indians. Others recruited the former leftist extremists in the key positions of the newspapers. Today most of the editors of the leading dailies are former leftists.

In the past few years the nation observed a curious coalition among leftist extremist politicians and intellengentsia, bank robbers, Ershad, India and the mass media. Electronic media provided unusually high coverage of Ershad during the campaign of 2001 general election. Only few months ago, one of the top terrorists of the country was caught in the airport while trying to escape to a foreign country. He was going out as a member of a cultural team. The team was being sent abroad by the Managing Director of a private satellite TV channel. A Director of the channel was accompanying him.

It is true that extremism and terrorism has long been rooted out from Bangladesh. However, their remnants remain under the umbrella of the secular pro-Indian politicians, media men and corrupt business community.