The Interim Government of Bangladesh, led by Dr. Yunus, is releasing all the Jihadists and Islamic Militants from the prisons. Bangladesh is slowly turning to become a Taleban-run Afghanistan as the Islamists are the biggest beneficiaries of the current coup. We may see the consequences in the coming days as Jihadists and Militants are slowly getting recognition and protection. The West who unconditionally supports Dr. Yunus will see the seeds they are sowing. It's a sad but expected outcome of the recent upheaval.
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Monday, March 4, 2013
Jamat Unleashed Unprecedented Violence
Source: Daily Star, 04 Mar 2013
19 more killed
Jamaat-Shibir unleashes another wave of terror in 5 districts during first day of hartal
It was all lies -- outright and outrageous -- but it worked. Jamaat's propaganda machine used a photoshopped image of Delawar Hossain Sayedee's face on the moon yesterday to entice people to unleash a second wave of terror that left at least 19 people, including a policeman, dead in five districts.
Bogra witnessed the worst, as Jamaat-Shibir men assembled locals through repeated announcements over loudspeakers that "Sayedee's face was seen on the moon and it's your holy duty to save him; otherwise, we all will go to hell”. Around 4 in the morning, they launched into attacks on police in different upazilas.
At least nine people were killed in Bogra, six in Joypurhat, two in Rajshahi, one in Satkhira and a policeman in Jhenidah in a deadly spate of violence throughout the day.
Three women were among the dead in Bogra, as Jamaat men used women and children as a human shield during the attacks on law enforcers.
The situation worsened to such an extent that the local administration had to seek the army's help to protect the Shahjahanpur Police Station in Bogra.
At least 63 people have died since Jamaat-Shibir activists went on the rampage on Thursday after a war crimes tribunal sentenced Sayedee to death.
Yesterday was the first day of Jamaat's two-day hartal to protest Thursday's police action.
Meanwhile, Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed in the capital around 8:00pm to ward off violence.
In Bogra, activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir tricked hundreds of villagers into taking to the streets in the early morning, and launching attacks on law enforcers.
They clashed with law enforcers, attacked a police station and six outposts, vandalised and torched different offices. At least four people, including three women, died in Shahjahanpur upazila, three in Bogra Sadar and two in Shibganj upazila.
The violence that began around 4:00am came to a halt after four hours following news of troops deployment. However, army personnel were called back around 6:00pm.
People in different upazilas said they heard announcements over loudspeakers in the early hours on Sunday that Sayedee's image was seen on the moon.
Moved by the announcements, hundreds of people, mostly from Shahjahanpur, Kahalu, Shibganj and Dupchanchia upazilas, came out of their houses and started marching towards Bogra Sadar upazila headquarters, protesting the death penalty to Sayedee.
A few thousand people attacked Shahjahanpur Police Station near the Bogra Cantonment, around 6:00am.
"They beat up policemen indiscriminately in a surprise attack,” Mahmudul Alam, officer-in-charge of the police station, told The Daily Star.
Police opened fire to bring the situation under control, said Bogra Superintendent of Police Mozammel Haq.
Four people died there.
Atiar Rahman, an inspector of the police station, identified the four as Arjinba Begum, 45, Monjila Begum, 48, Achhia Begum, 45, and Abdur Rahman, 60.
The protesters set fire to the house of Momtaz Uddin, president of district AL unit, in the town.
The vandalism continued for nearly 50 minutes. Three more persons died in clashes in Bogra Sadar.
Their identities could not be known.
Section 144 was imposed in Bogra municipality from 7:00am to contain violence, and it would remain in force until further orders, said Arifuzzaman, nezarat deputy collector in Bogra.
In a statement, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) condemned attacks on the house of FBCCI director Momtaz Uddin, business establishments and the office of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Joypurhat witnessed a spate of violence, as pro-hartal activists clashed with police in Panchbibi and Sadar upazila. At least six persons were killed and 30 others were hit by bullets during the clashes.
The dead are Nasir Uddin, 18, of Bashkur village, Hasib Uddin, 50, of Baramanik, Forman Ali, 30 of Rasulpur, Abdul Hakim, 32, of Salaipur, Mojidul Islam, 35, of Kashra village, and Abdul Bari, 24, of Rahmatpur village.
Five of them were killed in Panchbibi and the other in Joypurhat sadar, said sources.
Jamaat-Shibir activists swooped on police in front of Joypurhat Palli Bidyut Samity office around 11:00am, prompting police to fire shots. One person was killed on the spot.
Another group of Jamaat men gathered at Panchbibi Bazar to lay siege to the Panchbibi Police Station. As they marched towards the police station, BGB and police personnel fired shots, leaving two persons dead.
Three of the injured later died at Panchbibi Health Complex.
Md Hamidul Islam, superintendent of police in Joypurhat, confirmed that three persons died in the clashes.
However, Fazlur Rahman, Jamaat ameer in Joypurhat, said six persons were killed during the clashes in Panchbibi and Joypurhat.
Section 144 was imposed in Panchbibi and Joypurhat sadar following the clashes.
OTHER DISTRICTS
Jamaat men launched attacks on law enforcers at Godagari upazila in Rajshahi, leaving at least two persons dead and 30 people injured.
Jamaat men launched attacks on law enforcers at Godagari upazila in Rajshahi, leaving at least two persons dead and 30 people injured.
The dead are Rafiqul Islam, 12, of Godagari municipality, and Mojahid Hossain, 45, activist of Jamaat municipality unit and Imam of Mohishalbari mosque, said Wahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Godagari Police Station.
Section 144 was slapped in the municipality for an indefinite period after the clash, said Godagari Upazila Nirbahi Officer Tuhinur Alam.
Witnesses said the clash erupted when more than 500 Jamaat-Shibir men barricaded the Chapainawabganj-Rajshahi highway with logs, and burnt tyres around 9:00am.
Another group of pickets chased law enforcers at the cinema hall intersection, damaged vehicles and threw brickbats at police.
At one stage, the pickets fired shots and threw cocktails at the law enforcers.
In retaliation, police and BGB personnel fired over 100 rounds of rubber bullets to disperse the attackers, said OC Wahidul.
Pro-hartal activists also put up barricades on Chapainawabganj-Rajshahi road at Abhoyer intersection, on Rajshahi-Naogaon road in Mohonpur upazila and Rajshahi-Natore road at Kharkhari around 9:00am.
In Jhenidah, Jamaat-Shibir men hacked to death a policeman and gouged out his eye at Sanatanpur police camp in Harinakundo upazila.
They attacked the police camp, forcing the on-duty policemen to retreat to the headquarters. They soon caught up with the policemen and hacked them indiscriminately.
The Jamaat activists hacked Constable Omar Faruque to death and gouged out his eye.
Several seriously injured policemen were admitted to the hospital.
Nearly 3,000 Jamaat-Shibir and BNP activists also brought out a procession in Harinakundo upazila.
Jamaat men vandalised establishments in the upazila and set fire to government offices. Police lobbed teargas canisters and fired rubber bullets to disperse them.
At least one person was killed and seven others, including three BGB members, were injured in a clash between BGB personnel and Jamaat activists at Raichhpur in Sadar thana, two kilometres away from Satkhira town.
Lt Col Abu Basir of BGB in Satkhira said Jamaat men attacked two BGB vans near the border around 12:00pm, prompting the BGB personnel to fire shots.
A Jamaat supporter was killed and three BGB members were injured in the incident.
A clash between Jamaat men and Awami League activists ensued at Nalta, when ruling party men tried to prevent Jamaat-Shibir activists from carrying out vandalism.
In Chittagong, clashes and gunfights between Jamaat men and Rab personnel left at least 14 people injured at Shekher Khil in Banskhali upazila.
Vehicular movement on Chittagong-Cox's Bazar highway remained suspended, as Jamaat-Shibir men barricaded the highway with logs.
Meanwhile, pro-hartal activists in Pabna put up barricades on the Dhaka-Pabna and Pabna-Kushtia highways after Fajr prayers. They also attacked the house of an AL union unit president and five shops at Ataikula.
Jamaat-Shibir men also felled hundreds of roadside trees and blocked the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf-Arakan road since Saturday night. They also swooped on law enforcers at Ukhia upazila in Cox's Bazar, leaving at least five policemen injured.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The agonies of Bangladesh come to London
Source: The Guardian
By: Nick Cohen
By: Nick Cohen
The Shahbag junction in Dhaka has become Bangladesh's Tahrir Square. Hundreds of thousands of young protesters are occupying it and raging against radical Islamists. Even sympathetic politicians cannot control the movement. The protesters damn them as appeasers, who have compromised with unconscionable men.
Theirs is a grassroots uprising for the most essential and neglected values of our age: secularism, the protection of minorities from persecution and the removal of theocratic thugs from the private lives and public arguments of 21st-century citizens
Naturally, the western media show little interest in covering the protest. The indifference is all the more telling because the Shahbag movement is a response to a crime westerners once deplored, but have almost forgotten.
The young in Dhaka have revolted over the war crimes trials of members of Jamaat-e-Islami. That useful leftwing term "clerical fascist" might have been invented to describe what they did. In 1971, the oppressed "eastern wing" of Pakistan rose against its masters to form Bangladesh. The Pakistani army responded with a campaign of mass murder and mass rape, which shocked a 20th century that thought it had seen it all. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, the Bonos of their day, organised benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden. The murder of Hindus and Christians, the flight of refugees and the chance to weaken Pakistan pushed Indira Gandhi into one of the finest actions of her murky career. She sent the Indian army to liberate the tortured land.
The Pakistani occupiers were helped at every stage by Islamist activists. Jamaat took its inspiration from Abul Ala Maududi who has as good a claim as anyone to be the founder of political Islam. Maududi wanted a global war to establish a caliphate. The break-up of Muslim Pakistan impeded the prospect of a world revolution. To prevent this reverse, his followers formed death squads to slaughter the intellectuals, engineers, administrators and teachers who could make an independent Bangladesh work. The outcome of a belated trial of handful of Jamaat war criminals has set Bangladesh on fire.
As with popular revolts throughout history, Bangladeshi liberals are in two minds about the Shahbag demonstrations. On the one hand, they cannot fail to admire the determination of the young to state loudly and clearly that "religion-based politics had poisoned society", as Zafar Sobhan, editor of the Dhaka Tribune put it. On the other, the demonstrators are saying with equal force that they want the death penalty, that most anti-liberal of punishments, applied to the war criminals without mercy.
Do I hear you say that Bangladesh is far away and the genocide was long ago?
Not so far away. Not so long ago. And the agonies of Bangladeshi liberals are nothing in comparison to the contradictions of their British counterparts.
The conflict between the Shahbag and Jamaat has already reachedLondon. On 9 February, local supporters of the uprising demonstrated in Altab Ali Park, a rare patch of green space off the Whitechapel Road in London's East End. They were met by Jamaatis. "They attacked our men with stones," one of the protest's organisers told me. "There were old people and women and children there, but they still attacked us."
The redoubtable organiser is undeterred. She and her fellow activists are going back to the park tomorrow for another demonstration. Her friends are worried, however. They asked me not to name her after unknown assailants murdered Ahmed Rajib Haider Shuvo, one of the leaders of the Dhaka rallies, on Friday.
Whitechapel was where socialists and Jews confronted the British Union of Fascists in clashes that leftists mythologise as a grand moment of anti-Nazi solidarity. While they still talk about the Battle of Cable Street and remember 1936, it is far from clear to me where today's British left stands in relation to modern struggles against ultra-reactionaries.
Liberal muliticulturalism contains the seeds of its own negation. It can either be liberal or multicultural but it can't be both. Multiculturalism has not meant a defence of all people's rights to practise their religions and speak their minds without suffering racial or sectarian hatred. As events have turned out, it has led to official society picking the pushiest group of "community leaders" and honouring them.
In the case of British Islam, the anointed group was Jamaat-e-Islami, even though its British members included men accused of war crimes in Bangladesh. It was as if the establishment had decided that Opus Dei represented British Catholicism or Shiv Sena represented British Hinduism or the most bigoted form of orthodoxy represented British Judaism. The scoundrel left led the way down this murky alley, as it leads the way into so many dark places. Ken Livingstone and George Galloway have backed the Jamaat-dominated East London mosque, and Islamic Forum Europe, the Jamaat front organisation that now controls local politics in Tower Hamlets.
But to concentrate on the dregs of the Labour movement is to miss the point. Whitehall has been as keen on dealing with the allies of war criminals. Many East Enders have noticed that the Metropolitan Police seems less than anxious to follow up reports of menacing "Muslim patrols" or threats to drinkers at gay bars.
The moderate Muslims at the Quilliam Foundation told me that the status Britain had given to Jamaat helped push British Bangladeshis away from social democratic politics and towards radical Islam.
The British-Asian feminist Gita Sahgal launched the Centre for Secular Space last week to combat such indulgence of theocratic obscurantism. She told me that Jamaat perverts traditional faith and she should know. Not only did she name alleged Jamaat war criminals living in Britain for Channel 4 in the 1990s, she is also Jawaharlal Nehru's great niece and a distant relative of the Indira Gandhi who sent the army into Bangladesh. I admire Sahgal and Quilliam hugely, but they are mistrusted, even hated by orthodox leftwingers. The feeling is reciprocated in spades and perhaps you can see why.
Many do not want to talk about Bangladesh massacres that moved liberal opinion to outrage in the 1970s, just as many did not want to talk about Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds in the run-up to the second Iraq war. These are politically inconvenient genocides they would rather forget.
The most bracing effect of the demonstrations in Dhaka and London is that the terror is not being forgotten and liberals are being forced to pick sides. Let us hope that they stop picking the wrong one.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Ban Jamat Shibir
A blogger and activist of Shahbagh movement was found stabbed dead last night, hours after the organisers decided to discontinue from today the 24-hour blockade.The killing prompted the organisers to abandon a plan to demonstrate in front of National Museum from 3:00pm to 10:00pm every day.The victim, Ahmed Rajib Haidar, lived with his brother Newaz Mortoza Haidar at Palash Nagar in the capital's Mirpur area. Police found the body, bearing several stabs, near his house.Outraged, the Shahbagh protesters demanded immediate arrest of the killers and banning pro-Jamaat blog Sonarbangla that had been carrying out propaganda against Rajib over the last few days.They also called upon the nation to resist the countrywide hartal called by Jamaat for Monday.The protesters have also observed one-minute silence last night and they will wear black badges this morning to mourn for Rajib.
Friday, January 11, 2013
BANGLADESH: External Efforts to Scuttle Genocide Trials
By Bhaskar Roy
Paper No. 5353, Dated 09-Jan-2013
Since its bloody and violent birth in 1971, Bangladesh’s
history has been pronounced for political assassinations and military coups
than reasons of development the country so richly deserves. Certainly, there still remain deep
religio-political differences among the people.
The main conflict is between right wing elements who
continue to strive for Sharia law, discrimination against women and minorities
and spiritual regression on the one side, and the progressive and liberal
section of the population especially the educated youth who want jobs, progress
and development.
After 2008, there has been some forward movement. Social indicators have improved. Economic growth reached 7%. International stature moved from ‘near a
state sponsor of terrorism’ in early 2002 to “a frontline state against
terrorism” in the last two years.
Bangladesh began to be cited internationally as an example among
developing countries. Women’s emancipation
in Bangladesh under the present government is the highest in the region despite
opposition from right wing political parties and groups.
Of course, everything has not been wonderful. Corruption has
sapped the energy of the government in various areas and impacted development
efforts. There are many other
problems. But the country attained
escape velocity to break the gravitation pull of under development.
The nation, however, remains threatened by the festering
wounds of the 1971 war of liberation and the crimes against humanity committed
not only by the occupying Pakistani army but by Bangladeshis who joined the
Pakistanis in perpetrating
atrocities against their
country-men and women. It is no
longer argued that these atrocities did not happen, though no money or effort
was spared by interested parties to obliterate them from living memory and
history books. The evidence is too
strong.
An ingenious approach to downplay the impact of the 1971
genocide seems to be in the works. The
Economist, UK (Dec. 15th 2012) wrote “It was very late to begin the search for
justice, for the accused as well as victims”, but conceded that war crimes are
subject to no statute of limitation.
The weekly further said in the
same article “The main perpetrators are not in the dock, since they are
either dead or living in Pakistan. But some suspects are still leading
prominent lives in Bangladesh”.
In an internet posting by the Bangladesh Jamaet-e-Islami
(JEI) international (Dec. 24, 2012) of which the writer is a recipient, The
Economist is profusely thanked. The
posting starts with the following sentences “Initiated by The Economist, the
global media have now kindly exposed the myth behind the so called free, fair,
just, transparent, international standard
and not politically motivated trial
as shamelessly claimed by the government (current government in
Bangladesh) and all its political and ideological agencies, allies and
cohorts” The Economist suggests
that without the exposure it has made, the people would have remained
in the dark about the machinations of the Awami League (AL) led government.
The current controversy is related to the conversation of
Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq, Chairman of war crimes Tribunal-I with an
expatriate Bangladeshi lawyer based in Brussels, Ahmed Ziauddin. Justice Huq was discussing the
trial and revealed
that the government
was pressing for a
verdict against one of the offenders before December 16, the day the Pakistani
army surrendered in Dhaka. Judges all
over the world do research, but discussing the case in hand is not
ethical. The Economist had access to
these conversations as had the
Bangladeshi vernacular daily Amar Desh.
Both published the conversation between Justice Huq and Ziauddin.
Justice Nizamul Huq resigned, as he
should have. The other question,
however, is whether the Huq-Ziauddin conversation was privileged? Who hacked into the conversations over
e-mail, skype, u-tube or whatever else?
This is illegal, and suggests
that a well funded network is working to illegally penetrate the
internal proceedings of the court, the judges and the prosecution.
The demand that the trials of Tribunal-I start ab initio is
unfounded. The erring judge has stepped
down. The trial must go on from here
according to the rules laid down. The
first accused in this trial is Dilwar Hossain Sayeedi, a top leader in the JEI,
and one of the cruellest activists
in 1971. Sayeedi is the dominant
ideologue of the JEI who openly supports the extreme Wahabi ideology of the Al
Qaeda and Taliban and has two options for minorities, that is, either convert
to Islam or be prepared to be eliminated.
Those who emphasize “injustice in Bangladesh” should take a
short break and examine how the minorities in Bangladesh especially the Hindus, have suffered at the hands of the
Islamists they are trying to defend, and how the minority population has
declined from 18 percent in 1970 to barely 10 per cent today.
The manner in which the JEI international has presented The
Economist’s contribution to their cause needs deeper research than this article
can present, because of shortage of space. But the common cause made by the two
raise serious questions.
It is more than obvious that efforts are afoot to scuttle
the war crimes trial or shift it to after the year end general elections, in
the hope that the Awami League led government would not return to power. The arguments put forth by the anti-war
crimes proponents are neither legal nor moral.
A dangerous game is being imposed on this region.
It is becoming increasingly evident that The Economist has
wittingly or unwittingly become a powerful communication tool of a much larger
conspiracy that aspires to subvert the secular character of Bangladesh. The bigger concern is that the India led economic
development and social stability in South Asia may be the bigger target. This writer would like to be corrected if he
is wrong.
Attention of readers is drawn to two issues of The Economist
of July-August, 2011 (SAAG Paper No. 4665, 25 Aug. 2011). India was projected as a regional thug
executing negative policies towards its South Asian neighbours, shooting
Bangladeshi cattle smugglers, cozying up to Myanmar’s dictators, prosecuting
conflicting relations with Sri Lanka and meddling “madly” in Nepal’s internal
affairs, concluding New Delhi lacked any kind of vision.
In its excitement, the weekly, perhaps, exposed its
intention of going for the kill when it
alleged that the Awami League won the 2008 elections in a land slide victory with “bags
of Indian money and advice”, when international observers verified that this
was Bangladesh’s fairest elections ever.
The Economist went ahead to second the opinion of the Bangladeshi
opposition parties campaigning against giving India land corridor facility to
its North East, as it would annoy the Indian insurgents if military
transportation were to take place.
Astonishing! Was this weekly
supporting Indian insurgents getting support from and sanctuary in Bangladesh
as had happened openly during the BNP-JEI four party alliance rule in
2001-2006? This weekly must answer and
explain. It even tried to ridicule the
Awami League led Bangladesh government honouring the late Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi posthumously for her contribution to Bangladesh’s liberation.
The Economist’s approach is confounding. It appears to condemn the independence of
Bangladeshis suffocated under Islamabad; it tries to brush aside the genocide
unleashed by the Pakistani army, the Bangladeshi Razakars, Al Badrs and Al
Shams (together forming Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh – at least two Pakistani
army officers who witnessed the genocide have written about it in their
memoirs); it accuses the government of decimating the Islamic political party,
the JEI, among others. After Bangladesh
attained independence, the JEI, (Pakistan army’s and ISI’s surrogate) was
banned and the citizenship of its Amir, Golam Azam rescinded. It was rehabilitated when Gen. Zia-ur-Rehman
became President and formed the BNP in
1978, and a relationship was established between the BNP and JEI. Zia’s wife Begum Khaleda Zia became the
chairperson of the BNP after Zia’s assassination in 1981.
Complicating matters further, Turkish President Abdullah Gul
called on Bangladesh President Zillur Rehman for clemency for the war crimes
accused. In a letter, (Dec. 23, 2012) to
the Bangladesh President, Abdullah Gul pleaded that the
accused Jamaat-e-Islami leaders
were too old
to stand trial,
and apprehended that the trial may lead to civil war in the country. A 14-member delegation from the Turkish NGO
Cansuyu Aid and Solidarity Organization visited Bangladesh, met opposition
leaders and visited the Tribunal-I court, accompanied by the Turkish ambassador
in Dhaka. The delegation misused visa on
arrival meant for tourists and business delegations and indulged in political
activities.
The Bangladesh government firmly rejected the Turkish
overtures, but it was a case of gross interference in the internal affairs of a
sovereign country and, that too, in favour of criminals accused of crimes
against humanity. Most of these accused
have links with Islamic terrorists in Bangladesh.
President Gul’s plea that most of the accused are old and
not fit for trial is misplaced. Only
Golam Azam, former Amir of JEI, is 90 years old. The rest who held either ministerial
positions in the BNP-JEI government or high level position in the party, are
very active publicly. Although the
Tribunal has the power to sentence a proven criminal to death, it is not
necessary that this will be done.
The lapse of time between the acts committed and the trials
is not an issue. War crimes are not
bound by the statute of limitation. The
Nuremburg trials continued till all noted Nazi war criminals were accounted
for. The
age of the criminals were considered.
In Cambodia/Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge leaders who exterminated almost a
fourth of the country’s population during their bloody rule in the 1970s have
not been spared either.
What is Turkey’s game plan?
It is a member of NATO and is expected to be liberal and secular. From a once secular state
Turkey has shifted to
a more Islamist orientation. The
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to which President Gul and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan belong is generally described as Islamist rooted
and of Islamic leaning. Turkey is also
the current chair of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). But that does not mean it is part of AKP’s social,
moral and religious duty to try and save criminals who committed crimes against
humanity in a distant country just because the Jamaat is involved.
What made President Gul intervene in Bangladesh? Is the AKP trying to save the JEI who want
Sharia law to be introduced in Bangladesh and put women behind burkhas and
within the confines of the house? Does
the AKP have such a plan for Turkey? Or
is there a much larger conspiracy to demolish the development of the region.
Both The Economist and the Turkish government seem to have
conveniently avoided any consideration of the sudden spurt of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism led by groups such a Jamatul Mujahidin Bangladesh
(JMB), Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), Ahle Hadis, Hizbut Tehrir and others
between 2001 and 2006. There are over
120 such fundamentalist terrorist groups in Bangladesh. Funding came to them from Islamic NGOs in
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan and some other countries. A group of Al Qaida cadres were spotted in
the jungles of Chittagong Hill Tracts in December 2006, hosted by the JEI. They fled after the BNP-JEI government fell.
It is imperative that the international community revisit
the roles of the gentlemen facing war crimes trial and some BNP leaders in
promoting terrorism and political assassination between 2001 and 2006. If a moral issue is being cited, then the
entire series of developments must be revisited. The last question is why involve India?
It is well known that in some capitals of the world Sk.
Hasina is seen as an obstructionist to influence mongering. India is perceived as the large neighbour
which is promoting Sk. Hasina and her
government to a trans-Asia development connectivity.
This is not a case of a simple regime change in
Bangladesh. A very serious risk is being taken by the powers and
forces that be, to convert the country into a puppet of a new great game
without even thinking that the strategy might blow up in their faces.
As in Alice in Wonderland, the situation is getting
“curiouser and curiouser”.
_______________________
(The writer is a New Delhi based strategic analyst. He can be reached at grouchohart@yahoo.com.)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
122 Terrorist Groups in Bangladesh
Source: Daily Star
April 2, 2009
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said as many as 122 organisations are involved in terror activities in the country.
Addressing a workshop on 'Anti-Terrorism Act 2009' he said Qawmi madrasas are turning into breeding grounds of religion-based terrorism.
"They are not following the Quran, the Shariah and even laws of the land," he said adding that religious militancy goes against the spirit of religion and Islam.
"The education ministry is conducting a survey on madrasas and it is rational to bring all madrasas under government's control," he said.
The workshop was organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) at its conference centre at Gulshan in the city.
Shafique said Qawmi madrasas will get government facilities if they come under the government's control.
The law minister said the religion-based terrorism began in the country after 1975 when changes were brought to the constitution through martial law proclamation that opened the door of religious politics.
"It would not have been so easy for fundamentalists to take to terrorism if the 1972 Constitution had remained intact," he added.
The minister said, "If the article 38 of the 72 constitution is restored religious political parties automatically would cease to exist."
Without clarifying the question whether the government would restore the constitution of 1972, he said, "Wait and see; the government is only two and a half months old.”
Regarding the madrasa education he said modern education should be introduced in madrasas so that madrasa students could also compete in the job market, business and other fields.
He said merging the money-laundering act with that of the anti terrorism act would help the government fight Islamist militancy as money laundering is linked with terrorism.
Differing with some points of the law minister former adviser to the caretaker government Maj Gen (retd) Moinul Hossain Chowdhury said, “It is not the amendment to the constitution rather it is the economic problem that gave rise to militancy.
"Moinul said the reasons behind Islamist militancy lie with the gulf of difference between rich and poor, our education system, unemployment and overall law and order situation.
BEI President Farooq Sobhan, former IGP Nurul Huda, former adviser to the caretaker government Shafi Shami also spoke.
April 2, 2009
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said as many as 122 organisations are involved in terror activities in the country.
Addressing a workshop on 'Anti-Terrorism Act 2009' he said Qawmi madrasas are turning into breeding grounds of religion-based terrorism.
"They are not following the Quran, the Shariah and even laws of the land," he said adding that religious militancy goes against the spirit of religion and Islam.
"The education ministry is conducting a survey on madrasas and it is rational to bring all madrasas under government's control," he said.
The workshop was organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) at its conference centre at Gulshan in the city.
Shafique said Qawmi madrasas will get government facilities if they come under the government's control.
The law minister said the religion-based terrorism began in the country after 1975 when changes were brought to the constitution through martial law proclamation that opened the door of religious politics.
"It would not have been so easy for fundamentalists to take to terrorism if the 1972 Constitution had remained intact," he added.
The minister said, "If the article 38 of the 72 constitution is restored religious political parties automatically would cease to exist."
Without clarifying the question whether the government would restore the constitution of 1972, he said, "Wait and see; the government is only two and a half months old.”
Regarding the madrasa education he said modern education should be introduced in madrasas so that madrasa students could also compete in the job market, business and other fields.
He said merging the money-laundering act with that of the anti terrorism act would help the government fight Islamist militancy as money laundering is linked with terrorism.
Differing with some points of the law minister former adviser to the caretaker government Maj Gen (retd) Moinul Hossain Chowdhury said, “It is not the amendment to the constitution rather it is the economic problem that gave rise to militancy.
"Moinul said the reasons behind Islamist militancy lie with the gulf of difference between rich and poor, our education system, unemployment and overall law and order situation.
BEI President Farooq Sobhan, former IGP Nurul Huda, former adviser to the caretaker government Shafi Shami also spoke.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Hunted in Bangladesh, Suspect in Britain
Hunted in Bangladesh... the terror suspect freed twice by courts in Britain
By Fay Schlesinger
Source: Mail On-line
March 26, 2009
Faisal Mostafa, pictured in 2002, is facing allegations that his orphanage was in fact an arms factory and terrorist training camp
A British charity worker twice cleared of terror charges in this country is being hunted in Bangladesh after explosives were seized at an orphanage he founded.
Security forces there claimed last night that the orphanage set up by Dr Faisal Mostafa, from Stockport, was in fact an arms factory and terrorist training camp.
Mostafa ran Green Crescent, a charity that provided humanitarian aid to families in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Charity Commission, which awarded it charity status in 2004, last night launched an inquiry. Its chief executive, Andrew Hind, said: 'The matter is of serious concern to us.'
Mostafa, who has a PhD in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic, was known to security forces in Britain, having been cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life at Birmingham Crown Court in 2002.
Six years earlier, he had been cleared at Manchester Crown Court of involvement in a bomb plot campaign.
In July last year he was caught at Manchester Airport trying to board a plane to Bangladesh with a pistol and bullet parts in his luggage.
The father-of-three was given a suspended sentence. On Monday Bangladeshi security forces raided the orphanage Mostafa set up and the attached Muslim school on the remote island of Bhola in South Bangladesh.
Lieutenant Colonel Munir Haque, from the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'We found small arms - about nine or 10 in total - plus equipment to make small arms, about 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two walkie-talkies, two remote control devices and four sets of army uniforms.
'We also found enough explosives and other equipment to make several hundred grenades. We found some ordinary Islamic books, but others that are in line with extremists like Bin Laden.'
He said there were 11 children between the ages of 7 and 8 at the compound.
A teacher and three caretakers were arrested but Mostafa, who is in his mid-40s, was not there.
Police in Bangladesh said they were searching for him.
K M Mamunur Rashid, another officer in the raid, said: 'It is a big Madrassa and we have so far gathered that this whole compound is being used for militant training.'
Mostafa's father, speaking from his home in Stockport, last night strongly denied that his son had any involvement in terrorism. The 73-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: 'This is all an exaggeration.
'He just wants to help children. He is a British citizen and has been in this country since 1969.'
Green Crescent, set up in 1998, last year had an income of £63,000 for 'long-term educational and health projects'.
Saeed Mahmood, of Stockport-based charity Human Appeal International, said: 'Faisal comes in every few months about mainland projects in Bangladesh. We only work with organisations that are registered with the Charity Commission so we had no idea about these allegations.'
A spokesman for counter-terrorism think-tank Quilliam Foundation said: 'If Green Crescent has been involved in militant activity, this will reflect very poorly on the Charity Commission, particularly given that Mostafa, the head of the charity, had previously been put on trial twice for terrorist offences.
'Ineffectiveness by the Charity Commission in identifying and tackling extremist charities leads to the British taxpayer directly subsiding militancy.'
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Militants' 'ammo factory' busted
Source: Daily Star
March 25, 2009
In a chilling reminder of how the militants are still alive and kicking, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday unearthed a mini-ammunition factory inside a madrasa-cum-orphanage in a remote village of Bhola.
During the bust, they recovered a huge cache of firearms and ammunition, explosive substances, four pairs of German-made uniforms and booklets on jihad, Moulana Moududi and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
Besides, the elite crime-busters arrested four suspected militants--Abul Kalam, Abdul Halim, Jasim and Moulana Mohammad Russell.
The raid was still on as of filing this report at 1:00am.
Earlier at night, the coastal district's Superintendent of Police Azizur Rahman told The Daily Star that the arrestees did not yet disclose their organisational identity. But the materials seized suggest they are lined to a banned Islamist group like Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Following up leads, a team of Barisal Rab-8 had been keeping a close watch on Green Crescent Madrasa in Ramkeshob village under Borhanuddin for the last one week.
Then at around 11:00am yesterday, they stormed the building that stands on a four-acre land.
The seizure list includes nine firearms, 2,500 bullets, 3,000 grenade splinters, an explosives blaster, 200 gram gunpowder, bullet-making components and equipment, two walkie-talkies, two bows, two remote control devices, binoculars and a book on how to operate firearms.
Pretty well furnished, the seminary has no signboard. It drew attention of the neighbourhood, but few knew it was a militants' den capable of making improvised explosive devices (IED) and assembling ammunition.
Rab officials said they suspect it might have been used for training militants.
Lt Commander Mamunur Rashid who led the operation told The Daly Star that the madrasa, launched recently, is circled by a trench-like canal to keep off the locals.
In the daytime, the occupants would use a hanging bridge over the canal to get in and out. But they would remove it at night-time so no-one could gain access to the premises.
Referring to the items recovered, Mamun said, "We've found materials needed to assemble bullets. They include percussion caps, cartridge cases and bullet heads. And all these are made in the UK.”
About the blasting machine, Mamun said it is a military item that can detonate wired-up explosive devices planted in the distance. It is usually used in training on how to explode bombs.
"The recovery also indicates they [the militants] have all equipment necessary to make IEDs," he continued.
In primary interrogations, the arrestees told the Rab officials that they were recruited by one Moulana Mohiuddin.
They also said Faisal Mostafa, a Bangladeshi expatriate in London, has been financing the madrasa.
He is nephew of former BNP minister and ex-lawmaker from Bhola-3 Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed.
Faisal, who has been living abroad for over two decades, often comes to Bangladesh. Now he is on a visit to Chittagong.
His father Golam Mostafa, Major (retd) Hafizuddin's cousin, too is settled in London.
Contacted, Faisal's father-in-law Shahidul Haque Naquib Chowdhury, who was the founder president of Bhola BNP, said they are shocked to know of the arms haul.
As far as he is concerned, he continued, Faisal and a few of his friends have been running an NGO named Green Crescent. Their organisation is headquartered in Doulatkha of Bhola.
He said the building has been constructed on a piece of land that he sold to Faisal. He was told it would be used as a vocational training school for orphan children.
The Rab team hauled in 11 students of the madrasa for questioning. But they could not capture Kajal, caretaker of the building, as he has gone to Chittagong with Faisal.
The students told the Rab officials that the madrasa is only a month old.
Those involved in the operation said they can tell from the interior and exterior and tile floors that a handsome amount of money had been spent on construction of the building.
Friday, March 20, 2009
NGOs under scanner for 'funding militancy'
NGOs under scanner for 'funding militancy'
Govt to scrutinise activities of NGOs okayed during Mojahid's stint
Source: Daily Star
March 19, 2009
The government will scrutinise activities of the NGOs that got approval during the rule of the BNP-led four-party alliance government to see if those have any involvement with funding militant activities.
"When Mr Mujahid [Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and former social welfare minister] was in charge a number of new NGOs popped up," Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters at his secretariat office yesterday. "If we look into these NGOs, we might get to know something new," he added.
"There are some investments in the country that patronise militant activities," Muhith noted but did not identify such investors.
He said the NGO Bureau scrutinises the sources of foreign funds of the NGOs and from now on the scrutiny would be made more intense. "The government will also see if there are other sources behind these foreign financing sources," he said.
"There is an international network against terror financing. Bangladesh has not completely become a part of that network, but the government is trying," Muhith said.
Bangladesh Bank is trying to get membership of the Egmond Group, which deals with international financing and money laundering.
"The caretaker government initiated some moves to stop terror funding. This will be strengthened further," Muhith added.
During the rule of the four-party alliance government the NGO Bureau listed 473 local and 25 foreign NGOs. Since 1990 it has approved 2,367 local and foreign NGOs that run on foreign funding.
Following the 2005 countrywide bomb attacks by Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government took up drives against Islamist militants.
Intelligence agencies had already reported that certain Middle East-based NGOs were funding terrorism, but the government did not take any action against those.
Intelligence reports categorically recommended banning the Kuwait-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) and taking action against a number of other Middle Eastern organisations found to have links with Islamist extremists.
In 2002, the US Department of State blacklisted some RIHS offices, citing their support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
But the alliance government used to entertain RIHS top leaders.
The RIHS chief was on a visit to Dhaka during the August bomb attack of JMB and he met three cabinet members.
Intelligence had also reported that militant group Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab) also receive such funding. Ahab chief Asadullah Al Galib himself talked about receiving funds from NGO Ar-Rib.
The banned Harkatul Jihad, responsible for a number of gruesome killings and grenade attacks, also receive foreign funding. Intelligence reports said the JMB spent roughly Tk 60 lakh a year for maintaining its fulltime leaders and cadres, and Tk 1-5 crore for buying explosives and firearms and executing attacks.
Other suspected NGOs include Rabita Al-Alam Al-Islami, Al-Muntada Al-Islami, Society of Social Reforms, Qatar Charitable Society, Islamic Relief Agency, Al-Forkan Foundation, International Relief Organisation, Kuwait Joint Relief Committee, Muslim Aid Bangladesh, Dar Al-Khair, Hayatul Igachha and Tawheed-e-Noor.
These NGOs have been operating in the country since the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday said the central bank has intensified monitoring at commercial banks to find if there is any link between suspicious transactions and militants, reports UNB.
"We are examining the transactions afresh," he told reporters after attending a workshop styled "Micro-insurance and Poverty" at Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation Bhaban at Agargaon.
The central bank is also exchanging information with institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission to identify the suspicious transactions, the governor added.
Govt to scrutinise activities of NGOs okayed during Mojahid's stint
Source: Daily Star
March 19, 2009
The government will scrutinise activities of the NGOs that got approval during the rule of the BNP-led four-party alliance government to see if those have any involvement with funding militant activities.
"When Mr Mujahid [Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and former social welfare minister] was in charge a number of new NGOs popped up," Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters at his secretariat office yesterday. "If we look into these NGOs, we might get to know something new," he added.
"There are some investments in the country that patronise militant activities," Muhith noted but did not identify such investors.
He said the NGO Bureau scrutinises the sources of foreign funds of the NGOs and from now on the scrutiny would be made more intense. "The government will also see if there are other sources behind these foreign financing sources," he said.
"There is an international network against terror financing. Bangladesh has not completely become a part of that network, but the government is trying," Muhith said.
Bangladesh Bank is trying to get membership of the Egmond Group, which deals with international financing and money laundering.
"The caretaker government initiated some moves to stop terror funding. This will be strengthened further," Muhith added.
During the rule of the four-party alliance government the NGO Bureau listed 473 local and 25 foreign NGOs. Since 1990 it has approved 2,367 local and foreign NGOs that run on foreign funding.
Following the 2005 countrywide bomb attacks by Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government took up drives against Islamist militants.
Intelligence agencies had already reported that certain Middle East-based NGOs were funding terrorism, but the government did not take any action against those.
Intelligence reports categorically recommended banning the Kuwait-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) and taking action against a number of other Middle Eastern organisations found to have links with Islamist extremists.
In 2002, the US Department of State blacklisted some RIHS offices, citing their support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
But the alliance government used to entertain RIHS top leaders.
The RIHS chief was on a visit to Dhaka during the August bomb attack of JMB and he met three cabinet members.
Intelligence had also reported that militant group Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab) also receive such funding. Ahab chief Asadullah Al Galib himself talked about receiving funds from NGO Ar-Rib.
The banned Harkatul Jihad, responsible for a number of gruesome killings and grenade attacks, also receive foreign funding. Intelligence reports said the JMB spent roughly Tk 60 lakh a year for maintaining its fulltime leaders and cadres, and Tk 1-5 crore for buying explosives and firearms and executing attacks.
Other suspected NGOs include Rabita Al-Alam Al-Islami, Al-Muntada Al-Islami, Society of Social Reforms, Qatar Charitable Society, Islamic Relief Agency, Al-Forkan Foundation, International Relief Organisation, Kuwait Joint Relief Committee, Muslim Aid Bangladesh, Dar Al-Khair, Hayatul Igachha and Tawheed-e-Noor.
These NGOs have been operating in the country since the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday said the central bank has intensified monitoring at commercial banks to find if there is any link between suspicious transactions and militants, reports UNB.
"We are examining the transactions afresh," he told reporters after attending a workshop styled "Micro-insurance and Poverty" at Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation Bhaban at Agargaon.
The central bank is also exchanging information with institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission to identify the suspicious transactions, the governor added.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Terrorism in eastern South Asia
Book review: Terrorism in eastern South Asia —by Khaled Ahmed
Armed Conflict in South Asia 2008: Growing Violence
Edited by D Suba Chandran & PR Chari
Routledge 2008
Source: Daily Times
The book deals with the unpleasant side of the significance of South Asia. It has two articles on Pakistan, one on sectarian violence, the other on violence in the Tribal Areas. It has one article on Afghanistan and its luckless population who has been given to understand they have never been conquered, while, looking at their suffering, one would have wished they had been.
There are two articles on India’s internal movements gone haywire and one on Bangladesh’s vulnerability to Islamic terror. Nepal nurses its communist violence and Sri Lanka struggles with its long-gestation ethnic war.
In the northeast of India, a cluster of small states (Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya) have been convulsed with ‘freedom movements’ become violent. Out of the five, the first three are giving trouble still and violence there has actually increased after a ceasefire agreed by the Indian army in 1997.
If Pakistan had been watching, it would have learned that ceasefires with terrorists only give them time to regroup and form bigger armies. Also there are some other lessons that Pakistan and Afghanistan should have learned from India’s experience with terrorism since the 1950s.
One big lesson is not to glamorise the misfortunes of tribal nations gone wrong after suppression. One myth that Pakistanis are guilty of fabricating is that the Pakhtun never give up fighting and have never been conquered. They mouth this obscenity while standing in front of camps where Pakhtun women and children go through history’s worst brutalisation.
Listen to what the article Northeast: Island of Peace and Ocean of Conflict by Bibhu Prasad Routray says: ‘The Naga separatist movement, which had begun before Independence, is based on the premise that Nagas have been historically independent, unconquered by anyone and, therefore, India has no right to subjugate them’ (p.153). The rest of India should be grateful that it has been conquered.
The British had kept the tribes in the northeast as areas under special dispensation, but that arrangement became the trigger for Naga National Council (NNC) in 1947 asking for independence, greatly encouraged by a referendum in 1951 that had 99 percent of the Naga population saying that wanted to be independent under their leader AZ Phizo. New Delhi jibbed and sent in the army. Phizo fled to London never to return. After much fighting, in 1975, the Shillong Accord got the Nagas of NNC to accept the Constitution of India, but the NNC split and formed Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) to continue fighting. Later this too split and the splinters became even more radical.
Insurgency in Assam, the source of much of India’s oil and gas, began in 1979 under United Liberation Front (ULFA) demanding a sovereign socialist Assam that would stop refugees from Bangladesh from coming in and upsetting the population balance in favour of the Bodos in Assam.
After ULFA went terrorist it liaised with the Naga terrorists nextdoor, but the Indian army hit back and the ULFA leaders fled into Bangladesh where they fell under the spell of ISI and DGFI of Bangladesh and ULFA got itself well supplied materially and financially (p.155). (India got RAW to meddle in a similar ‘liberation’ movement in Balochistan as a tit for tat ‘signalling’ to Islamabad.) The Bodos too are struggling since the 1980s for Bodoland in Assam and often become nasty.
Manipur is also convulsed because the centre delayed making Manipur a state in 1947. The terrorist outfits here, including an Islamic one protecting Muslims, pose as liberators and have joined up with the rest of the north-eastern rebels. Manipur is a bad case with 20 such outfits operating. The state of Tripura, not so violent, is a victim of migration from unstable Bangladesh; and Meghalaya would be called peaceful if it wasn’t a conduit for terrorists to-ing and fro-ing into Bangladesh.
It is shocking how like Pakistan Bangladesh is when it comes to Islamic terrorism. Smruti Pattanaik in her paper “Bangladesh: Islamic Militancy and the Rise of religious Right” reveals the pattern in events that flowed from the August 17, 2007 bombings in the country. Terrorism was the work of Banglabhai in the north who wanted to create a Taliban-like state under Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and Sheikh Abdur Rehman of Jamiat Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both erstwhile members of the student wing of Jama’at-e Islami. The Bangladesh National party (BNP) of Begum Zia took the Jamaat-produced radicals under its wing and denied they existed.
JMB’s Rehman visited Pakistan in 1999 to take training in Azad Kashmir. Banglabhai was already said to be a veteran of Afghan jihad wanting to recreate it in Bangladesh. When they began killing people, as in the case of poet Shamsur Rehman in 1995, the BNP denied it vociferously, blaming the killings on India and America. This BNP did despite the fact that Jama’at warriors had rebelled against the Jama’at acceptance of women as leaders. The other spinoff from Afghan jihad was Harkatul Mujahideen Islami (HUJI) which was funded by the Arabs whom the state allowed to have linkages with the two above rising stars of Islamic violence.
The BNP just wouldn’t own up to terrorism in the country till foreign pressure got it to catch and prosecute Banglabhai and Rehman, only to see them condemned to death by a court. Then neither of the two mainstream parties would support the call for their execution. This was somewhat like Pakistan’s parties who don’t want to even acknowledge the reality of Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorism in Pakistan. It was the caretaker government, supported by the army in 2001, that finally executed the two mass killers of Bangladesh.
BNP leader Begum Zia’s son Tariq Rehman was running his own shadow government in Dhaka and gave protection to the killers. Needless to say, the Islamic killers hated Awami League and India with equal fervour. Later some BNP leaders, including a minister Aminul Haq, were put under trial and got long sentences in jail for killing opponents through Islamists.
The money for Islamic terror comes from the Arabs in the Gulf. There are 15 local Islamic NGOs and 34 foreign Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh. They give no one any accounts, receive their money through hundi and are supposed to dispose of 200 crore takas (p.196).
London Muslim terrorists gave JMB £10,000 for killing innocent people back home; and terrorist Rehman got big money from Rabita al-Islam, Kuwait, for doing the same job (p.200). Religious leaders who run these dangerous organisations regularly visit the Middle East for Zakat and collect huge sums which they often embezzle, but their Arab benefactors don’t seem to mind that too much.
Bangladesh has actually completed the transition from being a moderate Islamic state with strong local cultural tinge of tolerance and is now more like Pakistan, strongly Deobandi and Wahhabi in its new intolerant and violent character. Like Pakistan its politicians don’t want to mess with the madrassas and mullahs and risk their lives.
Pitifully, when the people at large were asked who was doing terrorism in a country crawling with 12,000 active killers, the survey showed 80 percent saying it was an unnamed ‘neighbouring country’ (read India); and, just like Pakistan, responded unreliably according to their politically divided civil society credentials.
Armed Conflict in South Asia 2008: Growing Violence
Edited by D Suba Chandran & PR Chari
Routledge 2008
Source: Daily Times
The book deals with the unpleasant side of the significance of South Asia. It has two articles on Pakistan, one on sectarian violence, the other on violence in the Tribal Areas. It has one article on Afghanistan and its luckless population who has been given to understand they have never been conquered, while, looking at their suffering, one would have wished they had been.
There are two articles on India’s internal movements gone haywire and one on Bangladesh’s vulnerability to Islamic terror. Nepal nurses its communist violence and Sri Lanka struggles with its long-gestation ethnic war.
In the northeast of India, a cluster of small states (Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya) have been convulsed with ‘freedom movements’ become violent. Out of the five, the first three are giving trouble still and violence there has actually increased after a ceasefire agreed by the Indian army in 1997.
If Pakistan had been watching, it would have learned that ceasefires with terrorists only give them time to regroup and form bigger armies. Also there are some other lessons that Pakistan and Afghanistan should have learned from India’s experience with terrorism since the 1950s.
One big lesson is not to glamorise the misfortunes of tribal nations gone wrong after suppression. One myth that Pakistanis are guilty of fabricating is that the Pakhtun never give up fighting and have never been conquered. They mouth this obscenity while standing in front of camps where Pakhtun women and children go through history’s worst brutalisation.
Listen to what the article Northeast: Island of Peace and Ocean of Conflict by Bibhu Prasad Routray says: ‘The Naga separatist movement, which had begun before Independence, is based on the premise that Nagas have been historically independent, unconquered by anyone and, therefore, India has no right to subjugate them’ (p.153). The rest of India should be grateful that it has been conquered.
The British had kept the tribes in the northeast as areas under special dispensation, but that arrangement became the trigger for Naga National Council (NNC) in 1947 asking for independence, greatly encouraged by a referendum in 1951 that had 99 percent of the Naga population saying that wanted to be independent under their leader AZ Phizo. New Delhi jibbed and sent in the army. Phizo fled to London never to return. After much fighting, in 1975, the Shillong Accord got the Nagas of NNC to accept the Constitution of India, but the NNC split and formed Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) to continue fighting. Later this too split and the splinters became even more radical.
Insurgency in Assam, the source of much of India’s oil and gas, began in 1979 under United Liberation Front (ULFA) demanding a sovereign socialist Assam that would stop refugees from Bangladesh from coming in and upsetting the population balance in favour of the Bodos in Assam.
After ULFA went terrorist it liaised with the Naga terrorists nextdoor, but the Indian army hit back and the ULFA leaders fled into Bangladesh where they fell under the spell of ISI and DGFI of Bangladesh and ULFA got itself well supplied materially and financially (p.155). (India got RAW to meddle in a similar ‘liberation’ movement in Balochistan as a tit for tat ‘signalling’ to Islamabad.) The Bodos too are struggling since the 1980s for Bodoland in Assam and often become nasty.
Manipur is also convulsed because the centre delayed making Manipur a state in 1947. The terrorist outfits here, including an Islamic one protecting Muslims, pose as liberators and have joined up with the rest of the north-eastern rebels. Manipur is a bad case with 20 such outfits operating. The state of Tripura, not so violent, is a victim of migration from unstable Bangladesh; and Meghalaya would be called peaceful if it wasn’t a conduit for terrorists to-ing and fro-ing into Bangladesh.
It is shocking how like Pakistan Bangladesh is when it comes to Islamic terrorism. Smruti Pattanaik in her paper “Bangladesh: Islamic Militancy and the Rise of religious Right” reveals the pattern in events that flowed from the August 17, 2007 bombings in the country. Terrorism was the work of Banglabhai in the north who wanted to create a Taliban-like state under Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and Sheikh Abdur Rehman of Jamiat Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both erstwhile members of the student wing of Jama’at-e Islami. The Bangladesh National party (BNP) of Begum Zia took the Jamaat-produced radicals under its wing and denied they existed.
JMB’s Rehman visited Pakistan in 1999 to take training in Azad Kashmir. Banglabhai was already said to be a veteran of Afghan jihad wanting to recreate it in Bangladesh. When they began killing people, as in the case of poet Shamsur Rehman in 1995, the BNP denied it vociferously, blaming the killings on India and America. This BNP did despite the fact that Jama’at warriors had rebelled against the Jama’at acceptance of women as leaders. The other spinoff from Afghan jihad was Harkatul Mujahideen Islami (HUJI) which was funded by the Arabs whom the state allowed to have linkages with the two above rising stars of Islamic violence.
The BNP just wouldn’t own up to terrorism in the country till foreign pressure got it to catch and prosecute Banglabhai and Rehman, only to see them condemned to death by a court. Then neither of the two mainstream parties would support the call for their execution. This was somewhat like Pakistan’s parties who don’t want to even acknowledge the reality of Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorism in Pakistan. It was the caretaker government, supported by the army in 2001, that finally executed the two mass killers of Bangladesh.
BNP leader Begum Zia’s son Tariq Rehman was running his own shadow government in Dhaka and gave protection to the killers. Needless to say, the Islamic killers hated Awami League and India with equal fervour. Later some BNP leaders, including a minister Aminul Haq, were put under trial and got long sentences in jail for killing opponents through Islamists.
The money for Islamic terror comes from the Arabs in the Gulf. There are 15 local Islamic NGOs and 34 foreign Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh. They give no one any accounts, receive their money through hundi and are supposed to dispose of 200 crore takas (p.196).
London Muslim terrorists gave JMB £10,000 for killing innocent people back home; and terrorist Rehman got big money from Rabita al-Islam, Kuwait, for doing the same job (p.200). Religious leaders who run these dangerous organisations regularly visit the Middle East for Zakat and collect huge sums which they often embezzle, but their Arab benefactors don’t seem to mind that too much.
Bangladesh has actually completed the transition from being a moderate Islamic state with strong local cultural tinge of tolerance and is now more like Pakistan, strongly Deobandi and Wahhabi in its new intolerant and violent character. Like Pakistan its politicians don’t want to mess with the madrassas and mullahs and risk their lives.
Pitifully, when the people at large were asked who was doing terrorism in a country crawling with 12,000 active killers, the survey showed 80 percent saying it was an unnamed ‘neighbouring country’ (read India); and, just like Pakistan, responded unreliably according to their politically divided civil society credentials.
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