Four decades is enough for an independent nation to determine its true identity.

However, recent political manoeuvrings, gradually influenced by a small but strong group of Islamist hardliners and lethal rise of radicalism in recent years, show the struggle for a true national identity for Bangladesh is intensifying.

Major political parties vie for power by appeasing hardliners and their supporters, while an increasingly authoritarian government tries to solidify power with unfair policies and laws disregarding democracy and greater public interests.

Militancy has weakened amid a crackdown by the government, but it has not withered as a recent event proves. A knife attack on Dr Zafar Iqbal, a prominent liberal intellectual, on March 3 was just a warning sign. Iqbal is one of Bangladesh’s best-known physicists, as well as a popular writer of science fiction and children’s books.