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| Bangladesh |
| JMB in action with hidden patronization |
| 2007-01-11 |
| Suicide squad members of banned Islamist terror group Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) were arrested at Narayangang district with huge quantity of explosive gel, manufactured grenades, weapons and jihadist pamphlets. The news of a huge cache of explosives that law enforcers recovered from Islamist militants on Monday will be stacked atop a growing mound of evidence that Islamist militancy is alive and well in Bangladesh. This development makes two crucial points. It gives lie to the claim made by the immediate-past government of the BNP-led alliance that last year’s arrests of the militants’ ideological kingpins ‘broke the back’ of their outfits. There are reasons to believe the claim was made to avoid addressing the phenomenon of militancy, in favor of a series of arrests and arms recovery, as this was politically expedient for elements within their fold. Secondly, the recent haul proves that the militants continue to be well funded and are politically active. It is important to note that these were not improvised explosive devices, but professionally manufactured grenades. Among the recovered items was also a booklet — a Jihad training manual — the contents of which have not been revealed to the press, but are nonetheless not difficult to surmise. In this respect, we unequivocally accuse the state of granting shelter to the militants, through the patronage of some powerful actors within the state machinery, as well as the willful myopia of those who choose to do nothing. Although there have been periodic arrests of Islamist militants over the past year, both the immediate-past government and the present-day caretaker government are window-dressing the militancy issue as a ‘law and order problem,’ when in fact it is a political problem that has been smoldering over the past decade and may at any time flare up into a movement that will challenge the legitimacy of the state itself. We believe the government lacks the political will to investigate not only the causes of the rise of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh but also their sources of international funding, and their reach within the bureaucracy. It is also alarming that the judicial process that was to see the six arrested militants including Siddiqul Islam aka Bangla Bhai and Shykh Abdur Rahman brought to justice still remains incomplete because of pending paperwork. We believe this inaction speaks clearly of the government’s intransigence in striking the militancy issue at its heart. This paper has from the very beginning warned that much of the fodder for Islamist militancy is created by the failure of the state to ensure fundamental rights and opportunities to its youth. The government’s refusal to investigate the nature of foreign money coming into Bangladesh to fund Islamic schools and institutes is also a key failure that is facilitating the rise of these militants. The blood spilled by the spate of suicide bombings and targeted assassinations by Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh is still fresh in the national psyche. We demand that the government act in the interest of the majority – and not powerful lobby groups – by cracking down on militancy through a wide array of political actions. We have already had a first taste of what the future holds for us, if we fail to act. JMB’s rise was initially patronized by several influential members of the former past government. Last year, there had been new alarming information on the list of patrons of Islamist militants. According to information, a judge in country’s lower judiciary with proven track of JMB connection is continuing to grant bails to notorious members of this group as well trying to create a legal window for the convicted JMB kingpins in getting legal benefit from the higher judiciary. Momammed Momin Ullah, Metropolitan Session Judge in Dhaka openly denounces any existence of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh and says that, any such allegation is a creation of enemies of the country. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Momammed Momin Ullah, Metropolitan Session Judge in Dhaka openly denounces any existence of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh Cause it's not militancy, it's mainstream. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-01-11 21:48 |