Bangladesh educationist Azad Chowdhury called for the banning of the country's biggest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and blamed the organisation for misusing Islam and committing the wartime atrocities during the 1971 liberation war.
In an interview, Chowdhury blamed the Jamaat for butchering intellectuals in huge numbers.
"Jamaat is an organized party, they had a legacy of this sort of cruelty which they have shown in recent times and months. These are not new; these have been perpetrated till our liberation war. Just before independence they committed crime against humanity, they picked up the intellectuals and slaughtered them and butchered them in innumerable numbers. The country lost brilliant sons and daughters of the soil," said Chowdhury.
Jamaat, an Islamist ally of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), opposed independence from Pakistan, denies accusations that some of its leaders committed murder, rape and torture during the conflict.
The trigger for this year's spasm of unrest came in February when a tribunal set up by the government to investigate abuses during the war sentenced a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party to life in prison, sparing him execution.
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Wrangling over a war that ended 42 years ago might puzzle outsiders, but it underlines the unresolved rift within this South Asian country of 160 million between secular nationalism and a belief that Islam is the defining core of the state.
The tribunal's failure to sentence Abdul Quader Mollah to death, sparked public outrage that was fuelled by secular activists who used blogs and social media websites to call for mass protests.
Tens of thousands poured into the Shahbag area of central Dhaka, staging rallies and vigils. The rise of their movement was soon referred to as a "Tahrir Square" moment, after the scene of protests in Cairo that led to the overthrow of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Bloodletting erupted across the country at the end of February when the war crimes tribunal condemned a top leader of the Jamaat party to hang.
The army was deployed after furious Jamaat activists attacked police with crude bombs, swords and sticks, burnt down houses of Awami League leaders and Hindus, and raided Hindu temples.
At least 30 people were killed on the day of the ruling alone, and the toll ratcheted up over the next few days.
Chowdhury lauded the government for its action on countering the recent violence in Dhaka and also ensuring justice through setting up the war crimes trial tribunal.
"We are happy that government took a strong approach, tried to maintain law and order and flushed them out of the Dhaka city and that has given a boost to the morale of the sensible people, who believe in Islam, practice Islam but not will go to the Taliban era or two thousand years back, philosophy," he said.
For now, the feud between bloggers and Islam has diverted attention from a stand-off between Prime Minister Hasina and BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia over whether to install a caretaker authority to ensure a free and fair election.
Both heirs to political dynasties, Hasina and Khaleda have rotated as prime minister since 1991 amid unending enmity.
Diplomats in Dhaka say the interim administration row will come to a head around September.
If that impasse is not broken, the BNP may boycott the poll, unleashing fresh unrest - or there could be a repeat of 2007, when the army stepped in and installed a provisional government to crack down on the political thuggery and violence.
