We can start with the generals.
The generals, especially General Ziaur Rahman, came to power on a sea of blood, and he ended in a sea of blood. General Ziaur and after that General Ershad both needed to give themselves some political legitimacy, and they used religion. The idea of signing on the Islamist parties is something that yet another general, Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, did; he brought them on in order to give himself legitimacy.
These two men needed legitimacy, and they thought the easiest way would be to give a banned party—in the case of General Ershad, the Jamaat-e-Islami parliamentary party—into his fold. This was to give him legitimacy. Now, he may say he could control these parties, but they got away, as they always have. So this was in order to create an aura of legitimacy about him. At the same time, he was trying to curry favour with the gulf, don't forget, to take the unemployed hordes off his hands. It's a cynical ploy but this is the way it was.
The two ladies are both very devout Muslims, but this is a personal enmity. When the personal becomes the political, in some cases it can be good, but here it has been a tragedy for the country. They have put their personal likes and dislikes above the good of the country, which is very difficult for many people, whether they are religious or irreligious or whatever, to subscribe to.
This country is poor enough. It cannot afford to lose the amount of money that it is losing. I can give you the figures from the chambers of commerce, but nobody will be able to give you the figures that a day labourer, a waged labourer, a woman working in a factory sewing garments for us is losing. All we can say is that we know they don't have the wherewithal to fall back on.