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| India-Pakistan |
| Radical Islam in Bangladesh |
| 2004-01-02 |
| From South Asia Intelligence Review The Bangladesh Government recently and sharply rejected a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report that had alleged that Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s Government was "not doing enough" to prevent the country from becoming a "haven for Islamic terrorists" in South Asia. The report, obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, says the Bangladesh Government was unwilling to crack down on Islamic terrorism. Similar ’rejections’ had also been articulated by the Bangladesh Foreign Office, and by powerful ministers of the alliance Government, when the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Time magazine, and subsequently other prominent foreign media, published reports about growing jehadi activities following the change of regime in Dhaka after the elections of 2001. While the ruling Alliance has consistently denied the presence of Islamic militants in the country, the nation’s vibrant Press, political Opposition and leaders of civil society have repeatedly projected a different picture. The lively press etc. is probably an after effect of British rule, and much like Pakistan. There are now increasing reports of the operation of several jehadi groups in the country, particularly in its northern and western regions, with coherent linkages and political networks, as well as access to arms and military training. Whatever their actual numbers or present capabilities, as well as the limited influence they have on the general population, these jehadis have started causing alarm in democratic circles, and unless they are effectively contained, may become a real and extraordinary danger in the imminent future. Police and intelligence agencies first suspected the involvement of these underground outfits in a series of bomb blasts at secular cultural functions and political meetings, which killed nearly a hundred people between 1997 and 2001. The fanatics also planted powerful bombs at one of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s political meetings. The left wing Awami League of Sheikh Hasina is generally secular and pro-India. The right wing Bangladesh National Party is pro-Pakistan and sympathetic to Islamism. But due to Bangladesh’s poverty, neither party can afford to take an outwardly anti-American line. Understandably, with the change of regime in mid-2001, the genuine national concern was perhaps neglected since the new Government had been formed with the support of two of the country’s organized fundamentalist parties, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ). The installation of the alliance Government gave a boost to the radical Islamists’s morale, after they had virtually been on the run during the previous Awami League (AL) rule. With the change of guard, most of the arrested militants, including those charge-sheeted, were released on bail and eventually the charges against them were dropped. Although these clandestine armed outfits first came to be focused on in the late Nineties, they have had their roots in the country since 1971, when Bengalis of the former East Pakistan were fighting their war of liberation against then-West Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami, with its militant students’ group, Islami Chhatra Sangha, had floated their first armed cadres, ’Al-Badar’ and ’ Al -Shams’ to ’defend Islam’ and Pakistan’s unity while the Pakistan Central Government had formed the ’Razakar Bahini’ to counter the Bengali freedom fighters. Two senior ministers of the present cabinet - Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mujahid - were directly involved in the floating of these infamous groups, which were responsible for killing of hundreds of secular Bengali intellectuals after branding them ’anti-Islamic’. These groups were the first militant religious organizations in this country, formed in close co-operation with the Pakistani Army. It was probably the inspiration for the subsequent recruiting of Jihadi armies to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan too. The Bangladeshi Islamist saw themselves as Muslims first, and fought against their own people because they saw pan-Islamic unity as preferrable to splitting up Pakistan to create a new country. They were also responsible for the massacre of thousands of Hindus, but after laying low for a while after independance, they were able to reemerge in Bangladeshi society. Over the years, thousands of madrassas, known as ’Koumi Madrassas’, entirely outside governmental control and nor accountable to anyone except their sponsors, were built. The main objective of the sponsors of a large proportion of these madrassas was allegedly to train and develop the ’soldiers of Allah’: the jehadis. And I wonder who their sponsors could possibly be? Testimonies of arrested militants suggest that they are well funded and well equipped to carry out an ’Islamic revolution’ in the country. They are staunch admirers of the Taliban, and many of their cadres reportedly fought in Afghanistan and also in Kashmir. Media reports suggest that a section of the Jamaat-e-Islami, IOJ and the Islami Shasantantra Andolon may be in league with some of these extremist groups, though these political fronts have all denied the charge. The Government has not banned any of the militant groups so far, with the exception of Al-Hikma. The Bangladeshi Jamaat is subservient to it’s Pakistani counterpart, so while they accept Qazi as the overall Emir, they aim to create a ’greater Islamic Bangladesh’ consisting of neighbouring regions of India and Burma. Bangladesh is an over-populated country with high levels of illiteracy and unemployment, and has been targeted by vested interests for a kind of political adventurism. Nevertheless, despite being deeply religious, the common people of the country have no special love for the jehadis, though a section of the extremely poverty stricken may be vulnerable to their blandishments if their activities and agenda are not effectively challenged. If the Government is not sympathetic and their funding and communication linkages are shut down, these groups would not be able to operate, and would certainly not be growing in strength. Media investigations suggest that the Islamic militants in Bangladesh are presently split into more than a dozen groups, with each commanding astrength of a few hundred or thousand. While there is still not authoritative assessment of the strength and firepower of these groups, and weapons seizures have been negligible, while storming some ’training camps’ in the jungles in southern Cox’s Bazaar, security forces found advanced weapons, as also evidence of the involvement of the Rohingya Muslim rebels from Myanmar’s Arakan province. Various investigations over the past few years, moreover, demonstrate that the bombs used by these extremists were highly sophisticated. So far, security agencies have reportedly identified 48 ’training centres’ across the country. The names of an estimated 13 militant organisations are known, but only a few of them have created news. The known groups include Shahadat-e-al-Hikma, Jamaat-ul-Mujahid-ul-Bangladesh, Jaamat-e-Yahia Trust, Hizbut Tawhid, Al Harakat-ul-Islamia, Al Markaj-ul-Islami, Jamaatul Falaiya, Tawhidi Janata, World Islamic Front, Jumaat-as-Sadat, Shahadat-e-Nabuat, Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami and Al Khidmat. Many of them are grouped together in an umbrella organisation called the Bangladesh Islamic Manch, which also includes groups active in Myanmar and those districts in India where illegal Bangladeshi immigrantion have lead to Muslim majorities. To resolve the problem, secular thinkers suggest that the administration must first shed its ’ostrich syndrome’, take serious note of such clandestine groups and work out strategies to neutralise them, since they reject both democracy and the idea of the sovereignty of the people. The so-called Islamists do not conceal their intention to set up a theocratic state, and hold the existing democracy responsible for ’anti-Islamisation’. Their ideological roots lie in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and several arrested militants have confessed that they received arms training in Pakistan, and fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Reports have it that Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has now asked the Home Ministry and concerned agencies to launch a ’massive manhunt’ for these clandestine extremist groups. But how can the Government act effectively against these militants with the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote, two self-professed Islamic fundamentalist parties, as its coalition partners? |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #2 Yeah, the 'Jihad Movement' of Fazlul Rahman, which presumably is the same org as the Harkat ul Jihad Islami, a group that Bin Ladin helped pay to set up back in 1992. It is also the biggest Jihadi outfit in the country. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-1-2 3:31:38 AM |
| #1 Isn't one of the Bangladeshi Islamist outfits a signatory of bin Laden's declaration of war? |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-1-2 1:36:30 AM |