More than 650 Islamist terrorists purportedly belonging to the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-BD), including a handful of mid-ranking militant cadres have been arrested in the aftermath of the August 17, 2005, country-wide bomb blasts in the country. Newspapers, on a daily basis, do provide details of incidents of security forces raiding militant hideouts and recovering arms and explosives. On the face of it, it would appear that Bangladesh is making a sincere effort at curbing Islamist terrorism. The appearance, however, belies the reality. The data on terrorism related fatalities is a dead giveaway. A country that is riddled with Islamist extremist activity sees its principal threat – and the primary target of security forces’ activity – in a minuscule Left Wing extremist (LWE) movement concentrated in small pockets of the western Districts of Bangladesh. Bizarre though it is, 177 deaths were reported in 2005 in LWE-related violence, compared to just 35 killed in connection with Islamist militancy. The data assumes an even more sinister dimension on closer scrutiny. As many as 163 of the 177 LWE fatalities (92 per cent) were categorized as ‘outlaws’. 11 civilians and 3 security force (SF) personnel were killed by the LWE-related violence in the whole year. By comparison, just nine Islamist terrorists were killed through 2005
Further details fill out a twisted picture. While the state eliminated 60 LWEs between August and December 2005, only two Islamist terrorists were killed during the same period. Interestingly, the security forces had no role to play in the death of the Islamist terrorists, as both JMB cadres were killed during suicide blasts on November 29 and December 8 in Gazipur and Netrokona DistrictsÂ… LWE in Bangladesh, consisting of the PBCP, Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF), New Biplobi Communist Party (NBCP), remains in a high state of disarray and their activities have been confined to the limits of the western districts of the country such as Satkhira, Khulna, Jessore, Jhenaidah, Magura, Chuadanga, Meherpur, Kushtia, Pabna and Rajshahi. Once-influential, outfits such as Purba Banglar Communist Party, over the years have split into several factions such as Janajuddha, Marxist-Leninist, Lal Pataka and Communist War, each posing little or negligible threat to state and its populace. Some of these factions are also involved in bitter fratricidal clashes, periodically eliminating their rival cadres. And when not engaged in infighting, the LWEs, popularly referred to as Sarbaharas, are generally engaged in isolated acts of extortion and abduction.
The LWEs have been systematically targeted both by the state and the Islamist militants, and indeed the rise of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and the notorious Bangla Bhai can be traced directly to a police-supported campaign to target and eliminate LW cadres. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), created in 2004 as a special para-military force under the Home Ministry, has been overwhelmingly targeted and eliminated LWEs and other criminals (mostly referred to as terrorists) in various fake encounters, referred to as ‘cross fires’ over the years. A report by the BBC (December 13, 2005) suggested that 190 people had been killed in such ‘cross fires’ in the last two years by the RAB. Occasional voices have been raised by the human rights activists over such periodic extra-judicial killings, but these have secured no Government response. A parallel campaign against the Sarbaharas was launched by the Islamist groups like the JMJB, propped up with adequate State sanction to deal with the ‘menace’ of Left Wing extremism. As Islamist militants, through 2003, 2004 and the early part of 2005, went on a rampage in the countryside, hunting down the Sarbaharas and their supporters, Government Forces stood by as a mute spectator and in some cases facilitated such atrocities. In a series of campaigns that took place in 2003 and 2004, mutilated bodies of suspected LWEs were hung from trees and electric poles by the JMJB’s private army.
The war on terrorism in Bangladesh, in spite of the formidable growth of radical Islam, remains essentially a prejudiced war on the peripheral Left Wing extremist movement, leaving out of its scope both the Islamists and the large number of Northeast Indian terrorist groups that operate out of Bangladeshi safe havens with manifest state support. With regard to the Islamist groups, the ‘standard operating procedure’ appears to be a cycle of routine arrest, interrogation and release. Large scale arrests – ordinarily of low level cadres – have ordinarily been a response to growing international concerns (read, demands) rather than any firm commitment to address the problem of rising Islamist extremism and terror..Reports indicate that more than 650 militants have been arrested during country-wide raids from different districts. However, due to reasons including official slackness as well as intervention of politicians, most of them were either released, while even the elementary charge sheets have not yet been filed against others. Reports on January 21, 2006, indicated that the Netrokona District police was yet to submit the charge sheets against JMB militants arrested for their involvement in the August 17 explosions.
BangladeshÂ’s false war on terror has enormously strengthened Islamist extremist forces in the country, and while many speak of the tremendous damage these forces will eventually do to the country, it is apparent that the current concerns of the political leadership, particularly the parties in power, appear to be based on a calculus that focuses on the significant and immediate partisan gains that they believe to be accruing to them, rather than the greater and eventual damage to the national interest. There is little within the political dynamic in the country that could reverse current trends, at least before the elections of 2007. |