Another football match canceled in Bangladesh. The women's football match was the third to be cancelled in northern Bangladesh in less than two weeks due to the objections of religious hardliners.

Shortly before the game began earlier this month, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh group announced a protest rally against the event in Rangpur region, saying it was un-Islamic. Fearing trouble, local police stepped in and the women's team members were asked to return to their home for their safety. Since the fall of Hasina, Islamist groups have become increasingly visible: Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, political analyst and chairman of the Dhaka-based National Election Monitoring Council, says hardline religious groups and Islamist political parties could take further advantage of the anarchic situation in the country. Around 700 prison inmates were still on the run after mass jailbreaks during the student-led uprising, including at least 70 who were either Islamic radicals or death row convicts, a top prison official said in December. Since the Yunus led Government took power, minorities are constantly under attack and threatened, houses and governative building have been torched, temples and chrchs desecrated. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has accused the interim government of failing to protect religious and ethnic minorities from attacks and harassment. The government denies the allegation, saying most of the killings and other attacks were for “political reasons” and not related to any communal violence. In late January, New York-based Human Rights Watch cited “a disturbing pattern of security force abuses” that reemerged after Hasina’s ouster, this time targeting supporters of her party, including journalists. An association of editors and rights groups has accused the new government of systematically suppressing independent media. Two media freedom groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, have urged the government to ensure fair trials and uphold procedural rights for journalists. Authorities say there has been no intimidation. Hasina’s main rival— the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — has asked the government to hold an election this year, otherwise it will hold street protests.

The student group that spearheaded the anti-Hasina uprising and an Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, have both said they want to give the government enough time for vital reforms before an election.

Yunus has pledged to hold an election either in December or by June next year.