Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, during a press briefing on June 27, 2025, revealed that the Royal Malaysian Police had arrested 36 Bangladeshi nationals this week on charges of involvement in a “radical militant movement”. He stated, “The Special Branch team’s intelligence and coordinated actions revealed that this group embraced extremist beliefs inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) ideology”.

According to Malay Mail and New Straits Times, Malaysian police uncovered that this group had established recruitment cells within their community to indoctrinate individuals with radical ideology, raise funds for terrorist activities, and ultimately, orchestrate the overthrow of the legitimate government in their country of origin – Bangladesh.

The Home Minister elaborated that those arrested had created these clandestine recruitment cells with the objectives of:

Emphasizing Malaysia’s zero-tolerance approach, Minister Saifuddin stated, “I would like to emphasize that Malaysia will not be a haven – let alone a battlefield – for any foreign extremist movement”.

Authorities anticipate that similar crackdowns may unfold in other nations where significant Bangladeshi diasporas reside, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

Since the jihadist coup of 2024, Bangladesh has witnessed a dangerous surge in radical Islamic militancy, with extremist factions persistently advocating for the dissolution of secular democracy and the establishment of a revolutionary Islamic regime under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus. Analysts warn that both ISIS and Al-Qaeda see the current political turmoil as an opportunity to expand their influence in the region.

On August 20, 2024, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) released a 14-page statement by its Emir, Usama Mahmood, via its propaganda arm As-Sahab Subcontinent. Titled “Bangladesh – The Emerging Hope of Supporting Islam for the Muslim........

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