Islamic militancy on the rise in Bangladesh

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, JUNE 19. The series of explosions that has rocked Bangladesh in the recent past has alarmed everyone about the future of democracy in the country.

The deaths of 22 political activists in a major bomb explosion at the ruling Awami League's office in Narayangonj near here on June 16 is not seen as an isolated event. The blast is the latest in a series that has claimed 144 lives over the last two and half years. As the country prepares for general elections, violent incidents have been on the increase. The alleged attack on the motorcade of the main Opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, just a day after the Narayangonj carnage in which the ruling party M.P., Mr. Shamim Osman was also badly injured, appears to be a ominous portent of the days to come before the general election .

The Narayangonj M.P. was one of the outspoken young ruling party leaders who had earlier declared that he would not allow Begum Khaleda to visit the port town if she came with fundamentalist leaders like Prof. Golam Azam and Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, the two Pakistani collaborators during the War of Liberation who have now become Begum Khaleda's closest political allies for the coming crucial election. While Begum Khaleda has accused the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina and the Home Minister for the attack on her motorcade when she was on her way to Faridpur on Sunday, describing it as ``a plot to kill me'', the ruling party leaders brushed aside her claim, saying the incident was an ``arranged game to sidetrack the Narayangonj carnage''.

The ruling party and its secular sympathisers allege that the main Opposition and the fundamentalist Jamaat-E-Islami are using ``foreign trained extremists'' to create a situation ahead of the election as they sensed defeat. But the BNP-led alliance has in its turn blamed the Awami League. Nearly two years after the blast in the western Jessore district headquarters that killed 10 leading cultural activists as they were performing on the dais, the police has finally chargesheeted some people, including a few fundamentalists allegedly having links with Pakistan and Afghanistan and local Opposition politicians. But the case is yet to be decided in the court.

Police and intelligence agencies, which had sounded a red alert across the country, have so far arrested a number of fundamentalists, mainly belonging to the Harkat-ul-Jihad, on the charge of planting two bombs at a meeting attended by Sheikh Hasina in Kotalipara, her home district. Army experts said if the explosives has not been detected beforehand several would have been killed. It is generally felt that the bomb culture has been introduced by religious fundamentalists who have close links with Pakistan and the Taliban, and their target is not only Sheikh Hasina but those who preach secularism or want Bangladesh to be a moderate Islamic country. The recent killing of 10 Christians in a church in Moksedpur in the Prime Minister's home district is again seen as the work of these fanatics.

Fears of destabilisation tactics by fundamentalists, supported by anti-liberation opposition groups, were substantiated when the police arrested some Madrassah teachers and young mullahs and confirmed their hand in the bomb blasts at the Bengali New Year's cultural function in Dhaka and also at several cultural functions across the country. The Opposition BNP, Jamaat-E-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) have criticised the Awami League of acting on behalf of India ``to crush Islam''.

By all indications, the activities of Islamic militants have grown in Bangladesh and intelligence agencies have confirmed their links with various foreign religious extremist organisations, including the Taliban. But the question is, why was there no trial? And also why is the main Opposition sidetracking the issue.

Against the backdrop of heightening political tension, the much talked-about Bill on lifelong State security for Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rahena, the two surviving daughters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was placed in Parliament on Monday.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : An effort to mix 'oil and water'
Next     : A monarch makes a transition to democracy