Bangladesh’s Islamic Revolutionary Army: Inside Yunus regime’s plan to replace Bangladesh Army with an Islamist militia

A grave and coordinated conspiracy is unfolding within Bangladesh. Behind the façade of political rhetoric and “anti-discrimination” activism, the regime of Muhammad Yunus has embarked on a project that could ignite the most serious security crisis in South Asia since the rise of the Taliban. Multiple sources – including regime insiders, social media disclosures, and intelligence leaks – indicate that the formation of an Islamic Revolutionary Army (IRA) is underway, designed to replace the Bangladesh Army with an ideologically driven militia loyal to Yunus and his Islamist allies.

This so-called “Islamic Revolutionary Army” is not a mere political stunt or student enthusiasm. It represents a dangerous convergence of radical Islamism, foreign intelligence collusion, and calculated efforts to militarize civilian networks. The consequences, if unchecked, could transform Bangladesh from a moderate Muslim democracy into a launchpad for jihadist expansion across South Asia.

The first open signal: October 20 disclosure

On October 20, 2025, a stunning revelation appeared on social media. Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain – an influential as well as controversial adviser to the Yunus regime – publicly announced the recruitment and training of 8,850 individuals across seven training centers. He detailed the program: trainees would undergo martial arts, judo, taekwondo, and firearms instruction. Within hours, screenshots of the post went viral – then disappeared.

Sources within Dhaka confirm that this is only the first phase of a larger plan. At least five successive batches of 8,850 recruits each are scheduled to complete training by January 2026. The recruitment process reportedly includes written, viva, and physical tests — all overseen by retired Bangladeshi officers with strong pro-Pakistan leanings, alongside covert representatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Turkey’s Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT).

These are not ordinary security exercises. Selected recruits, both male and female, are reportedly being prepared for “advanced commando” and “espionage” training in Pakistan and Turkey. Intelligence assessments suggest that a portion of these operatives will later be deployed abroad – particularly in India, Nepal, and Myanmar, as well as Western nations – to conduct subversive or intelligence-gathering missions.

A doctrine of jihad disguised as patriotism

The ideological justification for this armed formation is rooted in a narrative propagated by Islamist organizations aligned with the Yunus regime, especially Jamaat-e-Islami. On September 27, 2025, Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Ameer, Dr. Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, declared in a New York gathering that five million Jamaat youth were ready to “fight for independence” against India.

He went further: “If India enters Bangladesh, the bad name that was imposed on us in 1971 will be wiped off. We shall prove ourselves as true freedom fighters. One part of five million Jamaat youth will engage in guerrilla warfare, while the rest will spread inside India to implement Ghazwa-e-Hind”.

This rhetoric is not symbolic. It echoes jihadist war doctrine, portraying India as the enemy and glorifying a “holy war” to redeem perceived historical humiliation. For Bangladesh’s security establishment, this marks a dangerous revival of 1971 revisionism – an attempt to recast pro-Pakistan collaborators as “freedom fighters” in a new Islamist narrative.

From campuses to combat training

The seeds of the Islamic Revolutionary Army were planted long before the October revelation. In December 2024, a radical group called the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement – composed of student loyalists of Muhammad Yunus – publicly announced the launch of a militia under the same name: “Islamic Revolutionary Army”.

Their Facebook post called on youths to gather at Dhaka University at 8 a.m. on December 20 for enrollment. The plan: a three-day martial arts session, followed by a month-long military-style training “conducted by army and paramilitary forces”. According to insiders, the movement has been heavily funded by Western liberal financiers including Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and George Soros – under the guise of promoting “human rights and youth empowerment”.

In reality, the group has evolved into a recruitment funnel for an ideologically charged militia. Its leaders openly advocate replacing the “colonial army structure” with a “revolutionary defense force,” mirroring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Foreign fingerprints: The ISI–MIT connection

Investigations by Bangladeshi intelligence reveal a clear pattern of foreign coordination. In November 2024, at least five officers from Pakistan’s Special Services Group (SSG) – traveling through Dubai and Qatar – secretly entered Dhaka to train IRA cadres.

The SSG, headquartered in Tarbela, Pakistan, is notorious for its covert training of non-state militant groups across Asia. Intelligence reports suggest these operatives conducted joint sessions with pro-Yunus elements and Islamist student leaders to train them in guerrilla warfare, surveillance, and sabotage.

Turkey’s MIT also appears to be playing an active advisory role. Since Yunus’s political ascendancy, several Turkish “cultural exchange” and “educational cooperation” programs have quietly expanded in Dhaka and Chittagong – a façade widely believed to mask MIT recruitment and logistics operations.

The coordination between ISI and MIT in Dhaka indicates a deeper strategic agenda: creating a proxy militia modeled on Iran’s IRGC, capable of projecting Islamist power throughout the region.

A wider network: Hizb ut-Tahrir and ‘Stranded Pakistanis’

Reports dating back to September 2023 revealed that the Pakistani SSG was already training 300 operatives from Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) and the Stranded Pakistanis community in Bangladesh. Training took place in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – a known hub for radical militancy – under ISI supervision.

These operatives, transported in small batches through India and Nepal, were groomed in asymmetric warfare, urban sabotage, and infiltration tactics. They now appear to be integrated into the new Islamic Revolutionary Army structure – a network that combines Islamist ideology, diaspora loyalty to Pakistan, and Yunus’s political patronage.

A senior intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the operation succinctly: “This is Pakistan’s second attempt to recolonize Bangladesh – not through occupation, but through indoctrination and infiltration”.

Weapons, routes, and the logistics of subversion

Evidence of weapons smuggling complements the ideological and training dimensions of this plot. Last year, a senior leader of Pakistan’s ruling Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Irshad Ahmed Khan, admitted on Indian television that Pakistan has been shipping arms concealed within commercial goods to Bangladesh via Karachi Port.

Bangladeshi intelligence were barred from tracking shipments of agricultural machinery, spare parts, and chemicals – many routed through private cargo lines linked to Karachi – suspected of concealing weapon components. These arms, once assembled, are believed to be distributed to militancy outfits and Islamist strongholds.

This logistical network mirrors the model used in Afghanistan during the 1980s: smuggling arms under civilian cover, financing through NGOs, and distributing weapons through madrassa networks. The same architecture now seems to be reemerging in Bangladesh – with far more sophisticated digital coordination.

Strategic goals: destabilize, divide, and dominate

The ultimate goal behind the formation of the Islamic Revolutionary Army is not merely internal consolidation. It is to transform Bangladesh into a strategic outpost for transnational jihadist operations – one that serves Pakistan’s geopolitical interests while silencing secular opposition.

The Yunus regime, by cultivating alliances with Islamist elements and presenting them as “grassroots defenders”, aims to neutralize the Bangladesh Army – the last standing national institution capable of resisting radical encroachment. Once the professional army is dismantled or demoralized, the IRA can emerge as a parallel force – answering not to the constitution, but to ideology.

For Pakistan and Turkey, such a shift would open a new front in the subcontinent – enabling infiltration into India’s eastern flank and providing access to maritime routes in the Bay of Bengal.

A crisis demanding international urgency

This development cannot be dismissed as domestic political turbulence. It represents the methodical construction of a paramilitary movement with foreign sponsorship, regional ambitions, and sectarian intent. If the Islamic Revolutionary Army consolidates even part of its claimed force, the fallout will be catastrophic.

First, Bangladesh’s fragile communal balance will be shattered. Religious minorities – Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians – will face targeted persecution under a new wave of Islamist militancy.

Second, cross-border terrorism will surge, especially against India and Myanmar. Infiltrators trained under the IRA program could easily exploit porous borders, executing sabotage or assassination missions designed to trigger retaliation.

Third, regional stability – already strained by Rohingya militancy and Pakistan’s covert networks – will collapse, forcing India, Nepal, and ASEAN nations to reconsider their security doctrines.

The world cannot afford to look away. The Yunus regime’s militarization of Islamist groups marks the most dangerous internal shift in Bangladesh’s modern history – one that threatens to erase decades of secular and democratic progress.

The choice before the world

For the international community, the time for polite diplomacy is over. The formation of a state-sponsored Islamist militia, aided by foreign intelligence agencies, is an act of national subversion and a direct threat to global counterterrorism architecture.

Washington, New Delhi, and Brussels must demand an immediate, transparent investigation into the recruitment and training activities linked to the IRA. Economic and diplomatic pressure must be applied on Dhaka until such operations cease.

Bangladesh’s civil society, its remaining independent journalists, and the patriotic factions within the military must act before it is too late. Once a revolutionary army rooted in ideology replaces a professional army bound by the constitution, Bangladesh will no longer be a sovereign republic – it will be a caliphate in disguise.

The warning signs are all there: the speeches, the recruitment drives, the foreign trainers, and the weapons routes. The question is not whether the Islamic Revolutionary Army exists – but how long the world will pretend it doesn’t.

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