The incidents that made headlines

New Year's Day in 2015 dawned with the unsavoury aura of hostile protests. It was the second day of a nationwide shutdown called by the Jamaat-e-Islami. The party was protesting the death sentence awarded to its Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam, a war criminal.

In the three months that followed, Bangladesh saw unprecedented violence and deaths caused by arson attacks during the nonstop blockade and general strikes called by the BNP and its ally Jamaat.

The incidents made headlines at home and in the international media.

Political tension subsided a notch after that seemingly endless quarter of a year. Another three quarters have passed since.

The country has stepped into 2016 with a fear of rise in militancy following several disgraceful incidents last year – the murder of several foreigners and attacks on religious minority communities, places of worship, police and a naval base.

Apart from that, freethinkers were attacked one by one in 2015; four bloggers and a publisher were murdered. Another publisher and two writers were also brutally attacked, but survived.

Police have not been able to unearth the mysteries behind any of these attacks, but hold militant outfits responsible for them.

Amid all this, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal repeatedly said that Bangladesh's law and order situation was better than ever.

Just how much violence is necessary before we recognise that such occurrences cannot be regarded as normal?

According to a report of the rights group Ain O Shalish Kendra, political violence claimed 153 lives in 2015 while at least 192 people died while in the custody of law-enforcement agencies. Mobs lynched another 135.

The report said 752 women were raped in 2015 and 60 of them were killed afterwards. A total of 304 men and women were sexually harassed.

In every type of case, the number of dead and victims were more than in 2014.

Violence against society

Liquid cocaine was found on Jun 27 in barrels of edible oil, seized from a container at Chittagong Port.

Violent misuse of power

An auto-rickshaw driver and a rickshaw-puller were shot dead in random firing in Dhaka on Apr 14, allegedly by the son of a reserved seat member of parliament.

Shots allegedly fired by another member of parliament injured a nine-year-old boy in northern town of Sundarganj, Gaibandha, on Oct 2.

Political violence

Panic gripped Bangladesh after both the Awami League and BNP announced programmes to mark the first anniversary of the Jan 5 general elections of 2014. BNP chief Khaleda Zia called a countrywide road, rail and waterway blockade when police barred the party from organising a rally in Dhaka. Several rounds of strikes coincided with the blockade, which continued for over three months.

The progammes were marked by arson, bombing and subversive acts. A total of 7,599 people were arrested in several cases filed over the incidents.

Freedom of thought attacked

Unidentified assailants hacked to death writer Avijit Roy and seriously injured his wife, also a blogger, on Feb 26, 2015, in the capital city of Dhaka.

Miscreants hacked to death online activist Oyasiqur Rahman Babu in Dhaka on Apr 30.

Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was killed in a similar attack in Sylhet on May 12.

Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death yet another blog activist, Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, inside his house at Dhaka's Gorhan on Aug 7.

On Oct 31, attacks were carried out on two publishing houses which had published books written by Avijit Roy. In one case, the publisher and two secular bloggers were seriously wounded; in the other case, the publisher was hacked to death.

Murder of foreigners

The Australian cricket team withdrew its Bangladesh trip in early October, fearing militant attacks. Two foreigners were murdered late last year and SITE Intelligence Group, a jihadist-threat monitoring portal, said IS had claimed responsibility for the murders.

Several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia advised their nationals to limit their movements in Bangladesh following the murders.

Gunmen – four were later arrested and charged in this connection – shot dead Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella at Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic zone on Sept 28.

Japanese national Kunio Hoshi was shot dead in northern Rangpur on Oct 3. According to police, masked assailants on a motorcycle fired at Hoshi in Kaunia Upazila.

Minorities targeted

Members of minority communities were the targets of several attacks last year. Some came under attack over religious ideological differences.

A self-proclaimed 'Fakir' (dervish) and his attendant were slaughtered in Chittagong's Baizid area on Sept 4.

An attempt was made on the life of a Christian priest in Pabna's Ishwardi on Oct 5.

Assailants slaughtered a Sufist Muslim cleric, a retired senior civil servant who was chairman of the Bangladesh Power Development Board, in his Dhaka residence the same day. The Sufists are the ones that challenge the militant Islam across the sub-continent.

Two were killed and over a hundred more injured in bomb attacks on a Shia community procession in Old Dhaka on Oct 24.

A Bahai community leader was shot at and wounded by three motorcycle riders in northern Rangpur city on Nov 9.

The caretaker of a shrine in Rangpur's Kaunia was slaughtered on Nov 10.

In Dinajpur on Nov 18, assailants shot and wounded an Italian priest who had worked as a missionary in Bangladesh for 25 years.

Gunmen sprayed bullets on a Shia mosque in Bogra's Shibganj, a stronghold of Jamaat-e-Islami, during prayers on Nov 26, leaving the muezzin dead, and the imam and two others injured.

A bomb attack during a festival at the 300-year-old Kantajeu Temple in Dinajpur on Dec 4 left nine people injured.

An ISKCON temple in Dinajpur's Kaharol Upazila came under gunfire and bomb attacks on Dec 10.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack on a mosque in Rajshahi's Baghmara Upazila, the infamous den of the JMB founder Siddiqul Islam, aka Bangla Bhai, who was later hanged, during the Jummah prayers on Dec 25, leaving 10 people injured.

Violence against law-enforcers

A police assistant sub-inspector was stabbed to death at a check post in Dhaka's Gabtoli on Oct 22 amidst heightened security for Durga Puja, the biggest festival for Bengali hindus.

A slash-and-kill attack on a police check post in Savar left a constable dead on Nov 4.

A military policeman on duty at a check post at the entry point of Dhaka Cantonment was hacked up allegedly by a rickshaw-puller on Nov 10.

Six people were wounded in 'Molotov cocktail' explosions at a mosque inside the BNS Issa Khan Base of Bangladesh Navy in Chittagong on Dec 18.

Sexual assault

A group of molesters sexually harassed several women on the Dhaka University campus during the Bangla New Year, Pahela Baishakh, celebrations on Apr 14, 2015.

And these are just some of the cases of violence that made headlines in 2015. Many more stories of violence on individuals, including the cruel murder of two adolescent boys, lurk in the grim legacies of a year bathed in blood and hatred.