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Menacing growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh |
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Bangladesh has emerged as a sanctuary of terror and home to Islamic fundamentalists. In the past few years Bangladesh has undergone such fierce metamorphosis that global security experts feel it is on the way to becoming much like Afghanistan was in the hands of Taliban. No less a person than Sheikh Hasina, leader of the main Opposition party, Awami League, has called it Talibanisation of Bangladeshi society. India, the immediate neighbour, cannot remain a mute spectator as it will have to bear the brunt of terrorism in Bangladesh like none else. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia repeatedly denies that Dhaka supports anti-India militants or allows Islamic organizations like Al-Qaeda, to spread their wings on Bangladeshi territory, but there is irrefutable evidence to rubbish her claims. Both the US and the UK have started closely monitoring developments in Bangladesh and are getting worried. Pakistan, nursing a grudge against India for its role in 1971, is primarily responsible for the rapid growth of Islamic fanaticism in Bangladesh. Islamic groups regularly receive funds from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries and now, Intelligence reports suggest they become self-sufficient after being in power for five years. They have taken over banking and financial institutions and are in full control of investments from West Asia which run Bangladesh’s fragile economy. Wretched poverty has aided their operations with recruitment of foot soldiers coming easy and cheap. Rogue military officers, dismissed from the Bangladesh Army in the mid-70s, who were also self-proclaimed assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founder of Bangladesh, founded the Freedom Party to primarily establish an Islamic nation. They had recruited hundreds of educated youth and sent them to Libya in the 1980s for training so that they could aid their designs.
During the Afghan War against the Russian invasion, hundreds of Bangladeshi youngsters were smuggled into Pakistan to join the jehad. This happened with the full knowledge of Pakistan and Bangladesh military Intelligence.
A hardcore Islamic party like Jamaat-e-Islamia is an important ally in the Bangladesh coalition and hence fundamentalism is rising . In the last election also, Khaleda Zia used the religious card well, and her party’s manifesto explicitly mentioned that “it will follow Islamic rules and Koranic values”.
The Jamaat-e-Islamia has always had a communal agenda. It is the party of Islamic fascists who believe that Bangladesh should be ruled by Shariat. It never supported the Bangladeshi freedom movement and favoured the two-nation theory in 1947. It has always been pro-Pakistan and thrives on “anti-India, and anti-West bashing.” The Jamaat fought side-by-side with Pakistani forces against both fellow Bengalis and the Indian troops during the Bangladeshi freedom war.
One of the Jamaat’s main allies, the Harkat-ul-Jihad, may be a Bangladeshi entity but it is tellingly headquartered in Islamabad and maintains contact with the Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Harkat chief Fazlul Rahman was one of the six signatories of Osama bin Laden’s first declaration of holy war against the US on February 23, 1998.
The Jamaat is the largest and the most influential party in Bangladesh. It systematically made deep inroads into national politics and won 18 out of the 300 seats in the last parliamentary elections and were rewarded with two Cabinet berths. As of now, the BNP-Jamaat coalition enjoys a two-thirds majority in Parliament with the Jamaat filling almost all sensitive civil service, police, Intelligence and military posts with its sympathizers. These , in turn, look the other way when Jamaat-sponsored guerilla squads patterned after the Taliban, strike in rural and urban areas. With some 15,000 hardcore fighters operating out of 19 unknown base camps, guerilla groups on August 17, 2005 paralysed the country by triggering 459 synchronized explosions in a day in one administrative district. When key leaders of these groups were captured, they were kept in a comfortable apartment where they were free to receive visitors.
Islamist extremists in Bangladesh have for long maintained operational linkages with foreign groups. Investigations into the January 22, 2002 terrorist attack on the American Center in Kolkata, brought these linkages to the fore. The Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), which claimed responsibility for the attack, is essentially a criminal group allied to the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-e-Islam, the Bangladesh (HuJI BD) which has close links with the ISI.
The arrest of Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, prime accused in the attack, led to further disclosures of global linkages between the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the HuJI. Reports from Asian and Western Intelligence services say shortly after the fall of Kandahar in late 2001, hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters escaped by ship from Karachi to Chittagong. They were then trucked down to a hidden campus south of Cox’s Bazaar, reportedly by Bangladesh military Intelligence. According to other reports, militants from Jemaah Islamia – which is connected to the Al Qaeda and seeks to set up a gigantic Islamic State encompassing Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Southern Philippines- are also hiding in Bangladeshi terror camps.
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