Painful fuel shortages are beginning to drive violence and instability in parts of Asia, adding to the cascade of repercussions from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. In Bangladesh, illegal syndicates are stealing fuel in the middle of the night and raiding transport vehicles to stockpile supplies, according to a trade association for gas station owners. Gas pump workers in Bangladesh as well as in neighboring India and nearby Pakistan have been killed in fuel thefts or rage-driven assaults over the lack of supplies, authorities said. And in the Philippines last week, thousands of transportation workers went on strike to protest soaring diesel prices.

“This is a madness. This is intolerable,” Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, an adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister, said in an interview Monday, his voice rising in exasperation. “Where is the global conscience to solve this crisis?”

Governments in Asia have cut deep into their fiscal reserves to replace imports of Middle Eastern oil and gas, which have been blocked or destroyed by Iran in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign. Many countries have made expensive purchases on the so-called spot market to keep energy supplies steady and absorbed most of the price shocks with subsidies. Ask The Post AIDive deeper

But with uncertainty surrounding the progress of negotiations between Washington and Tehran, and indications that the United States is preparing for a ground invasion, these mitigation efforts may not be sustainable, analysts warn. More pain is expected as oil and gas volatility begins to drive up costs, or cause shortages, of food and other commodities.

The State Department, whose diplomats engage with countries affected by the war, did not respond to requests for comment. Ask The Post AIDive deeper

Research shows spikes in fuel prices often spur violence, within communities and against governments, especially when protections like subsidies are withdrawn, said Idean Salehyan, a political science professor at the University of North Texas. “If we have sustained oil prices over $100 a barrel and it lasts into April, possibly even into May, then we’re going to see some real chronic instability,” Salehyan said.

While countries with more poverty are the most vulnerable, wealthier nations are not immune. Trade associations in Australia say fuel theft has surged as much as 50 percent in some locations. French truck drivers are carrying out blockades in major cities this week to demand additional fuel assistance.

Still, it is countries like Bangladesh, with more than one-quarter of its 175 million people living in poverty, where the risk of insecurity is highest.

Among the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh imports about 95 percent of its energy and is heavily reliant on shipments that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that is now choked off by the war. The Bangladeshi government has mostly kept supplies steady, but panic-buying and illegal stockpiling are emptying gas stations.

Anxious motorists have formed lines stretching several miles, and because they’re pumping more fuel, stations are running dry after just a few hours, which is stirring even greater panic, said Md Najmul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association. Illegal syndicates hoarding fuel to sell on the black market have made the situation worse, Haque noted.

Every day, attacks are reported across the roughly 3,000 fuel stations in the country, Haque said.

In northern Bangladesh, a group of motorcyclists beat a gas station worker so badly he was hospitalized. In a district east of the capital, Dhaka, motorists who were turned away without fuel returned after nightfall to haul station employees into a canal.

Over the weekend, in the western Narail district, a truck driver, Sujat Ali, was arrested in the killing of Nahid Sardar, gas station manager. Security camera footage showed that after being denied fuel, Sujat waited for Nahid to finish his shift, then ran him over with his truck. Sujat claimed in interrogations that he had waited eight hours for fuel, police said.

Rabiul Islam, the owner of Nahid’s gas station, said in an interview that deliveries have been inconsistent since the start of the Iran war and had stopped entirely during the recent Eid holiday. All 6,000 liters of gas that the station received on Saturday had run out before Sujat arrived.

“It was very insufficient,” Rabiul said. “We could not satisfy everyone.”

Not even during the covid pandemic or the nationwide protests that toppled Bangladesh’s government in 2024 was the violence this bad, according to Haque, the association president. He said he is worried things will get worse. Some workers have faced threats that their gas stations will be set on fire, he said. Many are asking to quit.

“What can we tell them?” he asked. He has pleaded for the government to deploy security personnel.

Titumir, the prime minister’s adviser, said authorities are “dealing” with the insecurity.

Fuel caps have been imposed restricting the amount each motorist can purchase, he said. The Ministry of Home Affairs last weekend ordered a paramilitary force to guard fuel depots. The Ministry of Law is dispatching mobile courts to prosecute fuel hoarders and has recovered some illegal stockpiles.

Still, if the war stretches on indefinitely, it will be “very difficult” to protect people from inflationary pressures, Titumir said.

Bangladesh is already paying triple what it was a year ago to subsidize each cubic meter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to Shafiqul Alam, lead Bangladesh researcher at the U.S.-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. To maintain these subsidies, the government is seeking more than $2.5 billion in new financing from lenders like the World Bank.

“If prices remain elevated, the government will have to either reduce imports or increase prices,” Shafiqul said. Both would set the stage for greater insecurity.

Other countries are teetering on the edge of a similar cliff.

Indonesia so far has maintained heavy fuel subsidies but may not be able to do so if its deficit continues to balloon. Riots routinely have broken out in the country over fuel price shocks, including as recently as 2022.

Gul Nawaz Afridi, chair of the Petroleum Dealers Association in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said he worries about how long the government can keep up subsidies. “We know people may turn violent anytime against gas stations’ owner and workers,” he said.

Earlier in March, a gas station worker in the northeastern city of Sialkot was shot dead after refusing a motorcyclist’s request to fill jerricans with fuel, police said.

As the energy crisis drags on, costs will be borne disproportionately by poor countries far away from the epicenter of the conflict, Titumir said, and they will not just be economic. Elected just weeks before the U.S. and Israel began their joint attacks on Iran, the Bangladeshi government’s plans for reform and investment in public infrastructure have been derailed.

“We’re being punished,” Titumir said, “for something we had no role in.”