PART 1: Bangladesh treads fine terror
line By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE
- A death threat to the Indian cricket team allegedly
issued by an Islamic militant group in Bangladesh draws
attention once again to the presence of anti-India
militant groups operating in that country. A
hand-written letter from a group calling itself
Harkat-ul Jihad - it is believed to be a front
organization of the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), an
outfit with strong al-Qaeda links - threatening the
Indian cricket team with death was received by the
Indian High Commission in Dhaka last week. The letter
said the Indian cricket players, who were due to
arrive in Bangladesh on Wednesday, would be
attacked to avenge
the death of Muslims in the Gujarat riots in India of
2002.
In September this year, the World Bank's
director in Bangladesh, Christine Wallich (an American),
received a letter threatening her with death. She is
believed to be the first foreigner in Bangladesh to have
received such a warning.
While the Indian
government is taking the threat seriously - it sent a
team of experts to Bangladesh to assess the security
arrangements before the Indian cricketers began their
tour - Dhaka has dismissed the threat as a hoax. Whether
or not this threat turns out to be a hoax, the
underlying issue - growing Islamic extremism in
Bangladesh and the government's denial of the problem -
remains, and is likely to trouble the already fraying
India-Bangladesh relations, a retired Indian diplomat
told Asia Times Online.
This is not the first
time that the Indian government has raised the issue
with Dhaka. New Delhi has been drawing attention to the
presence of anti-India militant training camps in
Bangladesh and the growing fundamentalist extremism
there. It has repeatedly asked Bangladesh to shut down
the camps run by India's northeastern insurgents there.
In September, for instance, India provided Bangladesh
with a list of 195 camps run by northeastern insurgents
on Bangladesh soil, with specific details regarding
their location.
The growing role of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in training anti-India
militants based in Bangladesh has worried Delhi for some
time now. India's Border Security Force director
general, Ajai Sharma, told the media in September that
there were "firm reports" that the ISI had set up new
training centers for terrorists in Bangladesh. "The
terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir are also
being trained there ... It [ISI] is now fully
concentrating in Bangladesh," he said.
India is
not alone in pointing out that Bangladesh is turning
into a haven for extremist and terrorist outfits. For
some time now, the international media, too, have been
reporting increasing extremism, including al-Qaeda
activity, in Bangladesh. In April 2002, Bertil Lintner
wrote in the Far Eastern Economic Review that after the
fall of Kandahar in Afghanistan in late 2001, hundreds
of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters arrived by ship from
Karachi to the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong.
Lintner drew attention to training camps funded by
al-Qaeda and run by the HuJI in Bangladesh in which
Muslim Rohingya extremists and Jemaah Islamiah militants
were being trained.
Quoting "well-placed local
sources" he pointed out that this "would have been
impossible without at least some tacit agreement with
the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI),
Bangladesh's chief intelligence agency, which is closely
connected with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence."
A few months later, Time magazine's Alex Perry provided
details on southern Bangladesh having become "a haven
for hundreds of jihadis". Local media reports, too, have
detailed the way in which Islamic extremist outfits
flourish in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh
government has reacted fiercely to any suggestions that
the country is becoming a haven for Islamic extremism.
It banned the distribution of the Far Eastern Economic
Review issue that carried Lintner's "baseless" article.
Newspaper offices have been raided and journalists taken
into custody for investigating the al-Qaeda presence in
the country. India's allegations that Bangladesh is
providing sanctuary to anti-India militants and
encouraging Islamist extremism have met with a similar
response from Dhaka - outright denials and outrage.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's reluctance to act
against extremism has its roots in domestic politics.
Her Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP's) partners in
the coalition government include the Jamaat-e-Islami and
the Islamic Oikya Jote, both known for their support to
Islamic fundamentalism, the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The
Jamaat had collaborated with the military regime in
Pakistan during the 1971 war that led to the creation of
Bangladesh from Pakistan and continues to be close to
Islamabad. Its anti-India obsession is therefore not
surprising.
The Jamaat is responsible for the
proliferation of madrassas (seminaries) in
Bangladesh, many of which are known to recruit and train
jihadi fighters. Even if the Jamaat is not directly
responsible for terrorist acts, its inclusion in the
coalition government - it has two ministers in
government - has encouraged radical Islamist groups to
feel that they enjoy protection from the government and
can act with impunity. Its student wing, the Islamic
Chhatra Shibir, is said to be behind many bombings and
attacks on secular intellectuals and writers.
As
for the Islamic Oikya Jote, several of its membership
are said to be members of HUJI. Senior leaders from both
parties have openly flaunted their Taliban/al-Qaeda
connections.
In addition to political
compulsions to keep her fundamentalist partners in the
coalition government happy, Khaleda's inaction against
Islamic jihadis is prompted by her intense political and
personal rivalry with Sheikh Hasina, leader of the
opposition Awami League. "The BNP sees its
fundamentalist friends as useful weapons to keep the
secular Awami League in check," a senior Dhaka-based
journalist told this correspondent in February 2003.
Besides, its difficult relationship with India
has prompted the BNP to not accommodate Delhi's
concerns. The BNP's equation with Delhi has never been
easy and it has resented India's warm ties with the
Awami League. Delhi has always been more comfortable
dealing with an Awami League government, the warm
relationship going back to 1971 when India
diplomatically, materially, politically and militarily
backed the Awami League-led Bangladesh liberation war.
The BNP has allowed anti-India militant groups sanctuary
on Bangladeshi soil as this provides it leverage with
India. Its warming up to Pakistan while ignoring the
nexus between the DGFI and the ISI are attempts to put
pressure on Delhi.
But it is not just the
Khaleda government that is to blame for the current
state of affairs. Every government, whether led by the
BNP, the Awami League or the military, has contributed
to the problem by ignoring the warning signs, appeasing
the fundamentalists or encouraging extremism.
Sections in Delhi tend to describe the growing
fundamentalism in Bangladesh as the "Talibanization" of
that country. This might be an exaggeration of the
present situation, as Bangladesh is still far from
becoming another Afghanistan or even a Pakistan. The
country has a proud history of linguistic nationalism
triumphing over religious nationalism; there is still a
strong Bengali culture that Bangladeshi Muslims and
Hindus share. But the government's refusal to take on
the jihadis and other extremists head-on could change
that. Bangladesh's status as a moderate Muslim country
is being undermined.
Short-term political gains
appear to be behind the Bangladesh government's refusal
to counter the threat posed by Islamist and anti-India
extremist outfits operating from its territory. These
extremist forces are undemocratic. Given the fact that
military politics have played a big role in the rise of
Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh, the government's
reluctance to tackle terror could prove costly to the
country's nascent democracy in the medium and long term.
TOMORROW: Behind the Harkat-ul Jihad
al-Islami
Sudha Ramachandran is an
independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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attacked to avenge
the death of Muslims in the Gujarat riots in India of
2002. 
