The Indian government believes Bangladesh is a hot bed of Islamic terrorism and the threat to Indian cricket team may not be a hoax as is being claimed by the latter. The Centre is likely to take the final decision on sending the Indian cricket team for a two-Test series only after a three-member team of experts submit their report on the situation in Bangladesh.
The Indian authorities have more than enough reason to cancel the team's trip as it has been repeatedly warned in recent times about the growing clout of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI). HUJI is the most prominent terrorist outfit in Bangladesh, with a powerful network in south-east Bangladesh bordering Burma. The group is accused of drumming up death threat to prominent author Taslima Nasrin and attacking another major poet, stabbing a senior journalist, causing several bomb blasts, and carrying out at least one assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It possibly is also the group that attacked the US consulate in Kolkota in 2002. Although the Bangladesh government has described the militant outfit as "a paper organisation", Indian agencies believe that the group was set up with the help of Osama bin Laden in 1998.
According to a recent report submitted to the Central government and available with the timesofindia.com, some of Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami's Afghan veterans, who have returned to Bangladesh after the Taliban regime fall, are staying in hilly terrains of Cox Bazar, Banderban and also along the no-man's land in the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. These veterans are receiving supports from Qaumi madrassas in Chittagong and militant groups among Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh (Rohingyas), the report with the government says.
Among those underground leaders are HUJI idol Mufti Abdul Hannan, Mufti Qamarauzzaman and Mufti Saleh Ahmed - all three believed to be war veterans in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
"Chittagong has become the headquarters from where the Bangladesh Islamic movement is coordinated," the report with the government points out. The Quami madrassas that have mushroomed in Cox's Bazar and Banderban areas serve as recruitment agents to various jihadi outfits, including HUJI.
Illegal arms and ammunitions is freely flowing into Bangladesh, especially the lawless southeast, through the fishing harbour of Cox's Bazar, the report points out. The report says there has been "manifold increase" in activities of Islamic militant groups ever since the BNP government came back to power in 2001. | Gee, ya suppose there might be a link? |
Another report on HUJI with the government has quoted a series of articles in Prothom Alo, a Bangladeshi newspaper, as saying that HUJI has established an "active network" through local NGOs and madrassas for its activities. The report says HUJI imparts arms training to groups among Rohingya Muslims and even some Indian groups.
The Prothom Alo report quoted police officers as saying that HUJI has, in recent times, shifted its camps to Naikhangchari border in the no-man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Coincidentally, Indian agencies also believe that the central command of the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) and some other north-eastern insurgents such as NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) and NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) are also based in that area.
Indian agencies also believe that HUJI is using its influence with Bangladeshi Islamic political groups such as ruling Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (Islamic Unity Forum) for carrying out its activities. | Islamic politcal groups supporting islamic terrorist groups? Who knew? |
According to the reports, HUJI could have a staggering 15,000 members and its main aim is to bring about Islamic regulation in Bangladesh on the Taliban pattern with the greater objective of achieving international Islamic brotherhood in South Asia. | They all want to be the first with their very own Caliphate. |
Indian agencies have drawn up a very scary picture of HUJI which must been of serious concern to the authorities as they evaluate threat to the Indian cricket team. | They take their cricket seriously |
One of the reports with the government points out that the HUJI has maintained its links and gets funds from Pakistan's ISI, Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda, Islamic NGOs like Servants of Suffering Humanity International and Al Farooq International Islamic Trust and Pak-based groups such as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Prothom Alo has quoted confessions of HUJI members to claim that several HUJI top leaders were involved in various bomb blasts in Bangladesh. One of reports with the government says in March 2002 the interior ministry of Bangladesh had instructed police to take action against madrassas and camps of HUJI but there was only a lukewarm response. However, after the new government, which is a coalition of Islamic parties that are not very friendly with India, came to power, "no more circulars" were issued against HUJI, the report points out. |