Bangladesh, Oct. 15 -- The recent decision by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to issue arrest warrants in enforced-disappearance cases has reignited a bitter national argument: accountability versus institutional survival. That tension is real and unavoidable. Yet in the rush to score legal and political points, Bangladesh risks trading durable justice for a spectacle that could hollow out the states capacity to keep citizens safe — and, paradoxically, open space for the very extremists the nation fears.

Two simple facts frame the danger. First, the tribunal has issued arrest warrants against some thirty people in two disappearance cases — a move that has understandably captured public attention. Second, the prosecuti...