The government must realise that it is against heavy odds, that it faces an organised group that is well led both at the strategic and tactical level as evident from the recent conduct of the killings.

Not only the European Union, but the rest of the world is also beginning to express concern about the spate of killings by extremists in Bangladesh over the last three years.

The motive behind the horrid murder of Shahidullah, a 'Pir' in Rajshahi, is unknown but the way unidentified assailants killed him bears the hallmark of extremists who have been behind the recent killings of several others, both Muslim and non-Muslim.

Around the time that Singapore announced in January the arrest and deportation of 27 radicalised Bangladeshis under the Internal Security Act (ISA), S-Pass holder Rahman Mizanur, 31, came up with plans for an extremist group and began recruiting his countrymen.

Bangladeshis simply cannot allow extremists to triumph over liberalism and the way to defeat extremism is neither through dagger nor through 'development' but through unadulterated democracy.

Emboldened by the government's lack of action, the extremists will eventually expand their attacks on liberals, politicians, journalists, writers and anyone who disagrees with their views and approach.

Siegfried O. Wolf, a professor of political science at the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, said that foreign intelligence agencies did withhold sensitive information from Bangladesh, fearing that it could be misused. The country is in the grip of extreme political polarization, he said, and there is factionalism and rivalry among security agencies.

The nature of the crimes tells us one thing for sure, that these are the work of professional men. Whether those men acted on their own, or on behalf of an extremist group, or a political cartel is critical because that can give us an idea at what rate the fuse is burning to set off explosion.