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2008-02-29 Bangladesh
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Bangladeshi Islami militants have no Al-Qaeda link
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 UNB, Dhaka: Home Secretary Abdul Karim Thursday said Islamic militant outfits that are found in Bangladesh have no operative linkages with international terror networks of Al-Qaeda or Taliban. "Weapons or type of explosives they use may have foreign origin or in neighbouring countries, but their financing is arranged internally, not from external sources," he told a conference on Trend of Militancy in Bangladesh and Possible Responses at BEI office. Karim observed that some smaller militant groups like "Allahr Dal", Hijbut Tauhid and Hijbut Tahrir are seen trying to organize them and put up demonstrations on small issues. "And we're trying to destroy the network of small groups too."
Presided over by BEI (Bangladesh Enterprise Institute) president Ambassador Farooq Sobhan, a BEI report on trend of militancy in Bangladesh based on published newspaper reports was presented in the opening session of the daylong conference.
The Home Secretary said JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) is known to be a notorious Islamic militant organization while Huji (Harkat-ul Jihad) is considered pioneer of Islamic militancy. Both these outfits were banned by the government and six kingpins of the JMB were already hanged.
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He observed that some Islamic militant groups get support from a section of political parties. But he disagreed with popular notion that all Islamic militants come from madrashas. "It is not fully true," he said, adding that there are some people who come from different sections of society. Karim told the function that the present caretaker government is conducting fresh investigations into some major cases of bombs and murders. Citing progresses on some important cases, he said former Deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu was arrested for link with the August 21, 2004 grenade case while INTERPOL and other organizations' help was sought to arrest his brother Tajuddin, believed to be a mastermind of the attack.
About the grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet, he said the persons who supplied grenades and who hurled those were arrested. About the August 17 serial bombings by JMB activists, he noted that many of the criminals were arrested and some already punished. He said the attacker on Prof Humayun Azad was also arrested and being put to trial.
Karim said the government is committed to eliminating Islamic militancy as Islam does not mean militancy or terrorism and bring all these militants to justice and punish them. The Home Secretary said the government has already taken a number of initiatives, including formulation of Anti-Terrorism Act, enactment of Anti-Money Laundering Act, signing Mutual Legal Assistant Treaty with member-countries of SAARC and BIMSTEC. He said curricula of Qawmi madrashas are being modernized so the students could receive modern education. Moreover, the government is engaging Imams of mosques, madrasha teachers, NGOs and civil society in creating mass awareness against terrorism.
The Home Secretary said once the Anti-Terrorism Act in place, they would be able to address the terrorist activities by both left and rightist extremist organizations.
The BEI report analyzed activities of both left-wing and right-wing militant organizations. The report mentioned Purba Banglar Communist Party (Red Flag) Gono Mukti Fouz, Biplobi Communist Party, Sarbahar Party, Janajuddho, Gano Bahini and Mukti Bahini as leftwing outfits.
Often found dead by "crossfire".
It named Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata Muslim Janat Bangladesh (JMJB), Hijbut Tauhid, Allahr Dal and Hizb-ut-Tahir as major Islamic militant organizations.
The report said that, during the period of August 2007 to January 2008, police and RAB arrested around 153 people on grounds of militant activities. Of them, 104 were of the right-wing militants while the rest 49 of outlawed left-wing groups.
Presenting percentages of the arrestees from different Islamic outfits, the report pointed out that Hizbut Tauhid's percentage (46.35) is the highest as this organization has become more active in recent times in preaching their jihadi ideology, and as an organization it is yet to be banned. The report also quoted a suspected militant commander, Mustafizur Rahman Shahin, who was arrested in Pabna, as saying that some 5,000 operatives are active across the country. It gave another statistics that shows that during August 2007 to January 2008, law- enforcing agencies submitted charge sheets to courts against 72 extremists in several cases.
About the government's bilateral initiatives, the report referred to Home Secretary-level dialogue between Bangladesh and India agreeing to cooperate actively in curbing terrorism by exchanging information and SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance Treaty to take regional approach to combat terrorism.
In its observations, the report said it appears that militant groups have been trying to regroup in different names and forms and detained militants are able to keep communication with their fellow members outside the jail. And they can attempt to make revolts in or escape from the jail with their help.
Appreciating the present interim government's actions against HuJI, JMB and other militants, it noted that progress in investigation, persecution and trial of the major terrorist cases are still slow. The report appreciated law-enforcing agencies, including POLICE and RAB, in combating and countering extremists much better than anytime before and observed that the government is addressing the terrorism issue from a short-term militaristic approach.
It also appreciated that the government considered positively the draft Anti-Terrorism Ordinance for enactment to deter terrorism. It said Bangladesh Bank made a positive initiative to enact Anti-Money Laundering Law to plug in terror financing.
The non-government think-tank observed that investigations under the past governments were directed more against political rivals than actual culprits.
The report recommended that the government needs to be more cautious about activities of Khelafat Majlish, Islamic Morcha, about Hizbut Tauhid and other such outfits.
It suggested that the government enact an Anti-Terrorism Law and update the Anti-Money Laundering Law without further delay, which will also help Bangladesh to qualify to be member of the Egmont group to recover millions of stolen money from other countries.
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Posted by Steve 2008-02-29 00:00||
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