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Bangladesh
AL to welcome external forces to root out militants
2005-10-27
Awami League leaders on Tuesday warned that Bangladesh might face the fate of Afghanistan as ‘fundamentalist militants are now in an aggressive mood with direct patronisation of the BNP-led alliance government’. At a party-organised seminar they also expressed their readiness to welcome external forces in ‘eliminating fundamentalist militants in Bangladesh’. ‘Rise of fundamentalist militants in the past four years of the BNP-Jamaat rule has put the independence of the country under threat and the county may face the fate like Afghanistan if we fail to resist militancy,’ AL presidium member Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir told the seminar.
It's occurred to me that power rushes in to fill a vacuum. 19th Century colonialism died off in the late 20th Century, and now a new form of colonialism is trying to take its place, driven not by somebody's East India Company, but by holy men.
The main opposition party organised the seminar on ‘rise of militancy’ as part of its series of anti-government programmes marking the four-year of the four-party alliance government. A former principal of the Foreign Service Academy, Mohiuddin Ahmed, said the Awami League was ready to accept any sort of interference of external forces in eliminating the fundamentalist militants in Bangladesh. ‘If needed, we are ready to accept any sort of interference of external forces to resist fundamentalists,’ Mohiuddin, also the special guest at the seminar, said. Echoing Mohiuddin Ahmed, AL central leader Professor Abu Sayeed said if the government could welcome external agencies to probe incidents like grenade attacks on an AL rally and on the British high commissioner in Dhaka, why the AL should not welcome external forces in resisting militants.

Asked whether the Awami League supports the US invasion on Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of eliminating militants, Mohiuddin Ahmed said they supported invasion on Afghanistan as the US had taken mandate from the United Nations for it.

AL joint secretary Obaidul Kader, executive president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Moinuddin Khan Badal, and AL leader Akhtaruzzaman also addressed the seminar held at the Dhaka reporters Unity. They said fundamentalist militants were now in aggressive mood in the country with direct patronisation of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government. Terming Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and its student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir, militant, they demanded immediate ban of all militant groups active in the country. Abu Sayeed, who was the state minister for information of the past Awami League government, said Jamaat and Shibir were providing arms training to the militants through 7,000 madrassahs in the country.
Posted by:Fred

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