After Bangladesh lost the 2012 Asia Cup title to Pakistan, the Bangladeshi premier, Hasina Wajed claimed in an interview to a local daily Amardesh that her country could have won the final had “lovers of ISI and Pakistan” not come to the stadium to see the match.

It was a derogatory reference to the BNP leader and former Bangladeshi PM Khaleda Zia’s presence at the occasion. How exactly could one person or party’s presence affect the outcome of the match was not explained.

These were not just the remarks of a livid politician, heartbroken by her country’s defeat — granted that earlier, during the final minutes of the match, she broke down into tears — but from the tone of the interview, it was clear that she meant what she said.

Bitter rivalry between Hasina Wajed’s Awami League and Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh National Party now threatens not only to polarise the society, but to cause more violence, destabilise the country’s struggling democracy again, and in doing so, also strengthen religious radicals.

Some Bangladesh watchers view it as an extension of the India-Pakistan confrontation that never ceases to exist.

The India-Pakistan hostility has a life of its own.