On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, the day Bangladesh was finally liberated more than half a century back, India will mark ‘Vijay Divas’, or Victory Day, with commemorations and celebrations. However, Bangladesh, for the second consecutive year, has chosen not to hold parades to mark the dawn of its liberation from Pakistani forces.

That single omission speaks volumes about the choices the current regime in Dhaka has made since assuming power in August last year. And about how it seeks to reinterpret both the past and the present of the Bangladeshi state.

The angst against Pakistan’s massacre of nearly 3 million Bangladeshis, including the cream of the newly founded state’s intelligentsia, just a day before Lt Gen AAK Niazi, who commanded Pakistan’s army and irregular forces, including the infamous Razakar and Al Badr militias, surrendered to the combined might of the Indian forces and the Mukti Bahini, seems to have ebbed as new forces and new power structures emerge in the South Asian nation.

While voices from the street and from amongst the intelligentsia have called for Pakistan’s unconditional apology before ties are normalised with that nation, the powers that be in Dhaka seem to be progressing towards a closer embrace with Islamabad on the one hand and with Beijing and Ankara on the other.

Several Pakistan army, navy, and intelligence delegations have visited Dhaka and Chittagong during this year. A delegation from Pakistan’s defence production units has held talks for possible co-production of armaments. As have teams from China and Turkey, both of which, in 1971, had sided with Pakistan and had been steadfastly against the formation of Bangladesh.

Fifty-four years ago, the clutch of Islamist and pro-Pakistan parties in Bangladesh had gone deep into oblivion when Dhaka........

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