Terror returned to Bangladesh on the morning of Aug. 17 when 459 bombs exploded within a space of 30 minutes in government offices, airports and police stations across the country.

The highly coordinated attacks struck 63 of Bangladesh's 64 government districts, displaying a sophistication and audacity as frightening as the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

But so far, the Bangladeshi bombing campaign has received little international attention.

The attacks killed only two people and injured another 110. They appeared to be designed to cause maximum panic while inflicting little real damage.

The homemade bombs were wrapped in layers of sawdust and tape, instead of nails and shrapnel, to deliberately limit their power and damage.

Still, the fact such a sophisticated attack took place unhindered in the third-largest Muslim country in the world should set alarm bells ringing.

Bangladesh is a dirt poor and politically chaotic country that has traditionally been regarded in the West as a "moderate Muslim nation." It may now be on the brink of becoming a failed state dominated by a growing radical Islamist threat.

An editorial in the Daily Times of Pakistan warns: "The tide of Islamic violence is rising in Bangladesh and it is more lethal than anything we have known in Pakistan."

The bombings bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation and leaflets scattered near each bomb site claimed they were the work of the recently banned Islamist organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.

Formed in the 1990s with the financial support of extremists from Saudi Arabia, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen calls for the establishment of Islamic rule through an Islamic revolution.

The group was banned in February after being blamed for a series of bomb attacks against leaders of the opposition Awami League.

Leaflets at the bomb sites called for Bangladeshi Muslims to wage jihad against their government until shariah law is established in the now secular state.

"It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh," the pamphlets read. "There is no future with man-made law."

Other papers left by the attackers tied the bombings to Iraq and Afghanistan, saying, "Bush and Blair, be warned and get out of Muslim countries."

None of that is really surprising in itself, as Bangladeshi politics have teemed with confrontation and violence for decades.

One of the world's most densely populated countries, Bangladesh has a history of homegrown hostility that is frequently tinged with religious intolerance.

The country was founded in bloody conflict in 1971 out of a secular nationalist movement that called for independence from Pakistan. Ever since, mainstream Islamic parties, which originally opposed separation, have been in constant conflict with the advocates of secular liberal democracy.

But in the post-Sept. 11 world, the political tensions that haunt Bangladesh have threatened to turn the country into a haven for international terrorists. As an impoverished, predominantly Muslim state, Bangladesh has the same demographic and cultural factors that were crucial to the rise of militant extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Lawless and chaotic, it has been a haven for militants operating in India, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indonesia, Burma and Thailand. It is already a transit route for a massive drug- and arms-smuggling trade, and India has alleged for years it is home to more than 195 camps where guerrilla groups seeking autonomy or independence in north-eastern India are trained.

In recent years, Bangladesh has also been swept by a surge in Islamic fundamentalist fervour.

In 1993, Muslim author Taslima Nasrin had to flee the country after she received death threats for being critical of Islam in her writings. In the past few years, there has been a spate of bomb and grenade attacks on Muslim shrines, movie theatres and political rallies.

There have also been a steady stream of attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus and secular leaders and journalists who have criticized Islamic fundamentalists.

More importantly, Bangladesh, like Afghanistan and Pakistan before it, has also seen a spectacular growth in the number of "madrassas," or unregulated religious schools.

Human rights groups say the pace of the attacks in Bangladesh picked up after parliamentary elections in October 2001 returned a four-party coalition headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The new government includes two religious parties that are staunch supporters of Islamic fundamentalism.

Bangladeshi officials refuse to acknowledge the presence of international terrorists in their midst. They insist violent incidents are the responsibility of home-grown criminals.

"We have local goons or hoodlums trying to portray themselves as political groups," says Morshed Khan, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister. "There may be some local goons, working in the name of religion, who are being hunted down. But there is a difference between international terrorists and local goons.There are no international terrorists in the country."

Still, Indian intelligence officials say that after the U. S. invasion of Afghanistan, several hundred Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters escaped to Bangladesh through Pakistan.

Other reports suggest members of Jemaah Islamiah, the group responsible for the Bali bombing and terrorism incidents in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, are hiding out in Bangladesh.

Now that the threat of terrorism haunts Bangladesh, people are demanding a new vigilance.

"Let us never again hear anyone say that religious extremists are not active in the country or that they are not a serious threat," declared and editorial in Dhaka's leading English newspaper the Daily Star.

"After Aug. 17, we can never again say that we haven't been warned."