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| Bangladesh |
| Terrorism as Bangladesh's new export |
| 2006-04-09 |
| The recent disclosures that the six militants arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in connection with the terrorist attack in Sankat Mochan Temple and railway station in the holy city of Varanasi on March 7, belonged to Bangladesh based outfit Harqat-ul-Jehad al-Islami (HUJI), have highlighted the dangers that a talibanised Bangladesh poses to its neighbours. The serial blasts had killed 21 people and injured 62 in a city which is considered the holiest by Hindus. The blasts were clearly intended to provoke retaliation with the aim of raising communal tensions in the most populous state of India. According to police a local area commander of HUJI, Waliullah was directed by HUJI commander Maulana Asad Ullah to carry out the blasts. Waliullah acted as a conduit for the three terrorists sent from Bangladesh to carry out the attacks. The terrorists returned to Bangladesh after planting the bombs via Kolkata. The fact that a Bangladesh based radical fundamentalist outfit can have branches in India is bad enough, that it plans to carry out attacks inside India is much worse. These incidents have once again highlighted the dangers of growing talibanisation of once ‘liberal and tolerant’ Bangladesh under the current government. The recent attempts by the Bangladesh government to arrest the leaders of various militant outfits, coming at the fag-end of its tenure, are at best a case of ‘too little too late’. For most of its tenure Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government of Begum Khaleda Zia, has been a hostage to two of its smaller coalition partners Islamic Oika Jote (IOJ) and Jamaat-e-Islami – a party that had opposed the creation of Bangladesh and had collaborated with Pakistani military junta during the liberation war. Both these Islamic parties succeeded in forcing the government to turn a blind eye to the violence perpetrated by Islamic extremists, who systematically encroached upon Bangladesh’s traditional tolerance. Minorities have been persecuted under the influence of these Islamic parties and the worst sufferers have been the Ahmediyas, who number around 100, 000 out of a total population of 140 million in Bangladesh. As they are regarded as apostates by some Muslims, they have been systematically persecuted during the current regime. Human Rights Watch in its report published in June 2005, had clearly established that the Ahmediyas were being subjected to a campaign of hate, discrimination, expropriation and violence. In January 2004, even their religious publications were banned at the behest of IOJ, ironically in a country that was initially set up as a secular republic and even today ostensibly claims to allow every citizen freedom to practice his own religion. The telltale signs of fundamentalism have been there for all to see - the mushrooming of Madrassas, pressure on women to wear veil, suppression on traditional forms of entertainment, which have been termed as unislamic. The madrassas have been used as recruitment centres by the fundamentalists. Though a number of international publications highlighted the growth of fundamentalist organizations in Bangladesh and their possible links with Al Qaeda and other international Islamic groups, yet the government chose to turn a blind eye to this growing menace of fundamentalism. At first the BNP government flatly denied the existence of any of these Islamic groups in Bangladesh and even after February 2005 when it banned some of these organisations, its attempts have been half hearted. Despite the terrorists proclaiming their reach and strength to the world by blasting 400 bombs in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts on August 17, 2005, the government’s attempts to control the menace have lacked the necessary intent. The present Bangladeshi government has mastered the art of denying the obvious. Besides the presence of a number of Islamic terrorist organisations on its soil, it has routinely denied the presence of Indian insurgent groups fighting in India’s North East, even though media has published frequent reports not only about their presence but also about their meetings with various officials. Bangladeshi government also denies that there is any illegal migration from Bangladesh to India although even a blind man can feel the presence of these illegal migrants in most Indian cities. The increasing manifestation of violence by the Islamic groups including suicide attacks carried out in Ghazipur and Chittagong in November 2005 have however, forced the government to acknowledge their presence but its attempts to curb the menace have proved to be totally ineffective. For too long has the international community considered the growing fundamentalism and radicalisation of Bangladeshi society as an internal problem of Bangladesh. However, the participation of Bangladeshi terrorists in attacks in Varanasi indicates that the involvement of Bangladesh based outfits in attack on American Centre in Kolkata on January 22, 2002, was not an isolated incident. Bangladesh has now started exporting terror and India, which shares a 4,095 km porous border with Bangladesh, is one of the prime targets. The Indian government therefore has a bonafide stake in preventing talibanisation of Bangladesh, as it not only threatens the liberal civil society in Bangladesh but also the peace and harmony in India. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |