Jammu, July 2 -- June 30 has come and gone, but the questions surrounding Bangladesh's week-long security crackdown on the banned Awami League (AL) are only beginning. Dhaka had treated the date as the culmination of a sustained campaign of surveillance and preventive measures, all aimed at stopping any public observance of the party's 77th Foundation Day on June 23. A fuller picture of what actually happened will likely emerge only in fragments, partly because reporting on a group proscribed under the Anti-Terrorism Act carries real legal risk and many are wary of taking it on.
Even so, what has surfaced points to a pattern: despite the clampdown, AL leaders and supporters managed to organise low-key celebrations at several locations, cut...