Mystery surrounds the assassinations of “bloggers” and “Islamists” in Bangladesh. Every so often one hears of the death of a blogger, although rarely does the foreign press pay attention to the killings of the various strands of Islamists. Nonetheless, when the stories do emerge, they come with an air of obviousness. It is obviously the atheistic blogger who is killed by the Islamic fanatic. That is self-evident. The killing of the Islamist – such as the preacher and TV personality Nurul Islam Faruqi in 2014 – is more difficult to understand. It does not fit the classical storyline, so it is not covered with as much enthusiasm. It is far easier to toss Bangladesh’s trials into the sequence of ill-fated events that run from Libya through Syria-Iraq to Indonesia. What explanation is necessary if the culprit is al-Qaeda or the Islamic State? Nothing more needs to be said.

Last week…