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India looks at Bangladesh in
alarm
By Sultan Shahin
NEW DELHI - The worsening security
situation, combined with evidence of the growing
clout of Islamic extremists in Bangladesh on the
eve of a summit meeting of the South Asian
Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
countries, to be held on February 6 and 7, has
left India one again ringing the alarm bells.
On a visit to India's insurgency-infected
northeast bordering Bangladesh, Union Home
Minister Shivraj Patil said on Sunday that the
question of cross-border terrorism and Indian
rebel groups operating from Bangladesh's soil had
been taken up at the ministerial and secretarial
level and would now be taken up at the highest
level. Prime Minster Manmohan Singh is expected to
discuss the issue of illegal infiltration along
the India-Bangladesh border with his Bangladesh
counterpart, Khaleda Zia, during the SAARC
meeting.
The present volatile situation in
Bangladesh appears to have added urgency to the
issue. Schools and shops were shut down and much
traffic halted across Bangladesh this weekend
during an opposition-called general strike to
condemn the wave of violence sweeping the country.
Five members of the opposition Awami League,
including former finance minister Shah A M S
Kibria, were killed and about 100 injured in a
grenade attack Thursday on a political rally in
Habigonj, 120 kilometers northeast of the capital
Dhaka. This was reminiscent of a similar attack on
August 21 last year in which former prime minister
Sheikh Hasina Wajed barely survived, though 22 of
her party members, including leading figure Ivy
Rahman, were killed and hundreds injured.
Demonstrators taking part in the weekend
strike fought with police in different parts of
the country, smashing vehicle windows and blocking
train services. Police baton-charged protesters in
Dhaka and arrested over 40 people after clashes
between demonstrators and security forces, city
police chief Mizanur Rahman told the media. The
clashes with police followed violence in Dhaka on
Friday in which over 50 people were hurt when
police fired tear gas and wielding batons
dispersed demonstrators carrying Kibria's coffin
to a martyr's monument. The dawn-to-dusk strike
ended on Monday, but tension continues to engulf
large parts of the country.
The Awami
League's leader said on Friday the Muslim-majority
nation was being "held hostage to violent
extremism and radicalism" aimed at wrecking its
secular foundations and demanded a full
investigation into the blast. The government, an
Islamist-allied coalition led by Zia's Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP), dismissed the charges as
"emotional outpourings". But Zia has agreed, under
great European and other international pressure,
to involve Washington's Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Britain's Scotland Yard in
nabbing the culprits.
In the continuing
feud between the moderate majority and a minority
of extremist elements in the world's second
largest Muslim-majority nation, after Indonesia,
the country has witnessed several major bomb
blasts since the present BNP government came to
power with the help of Islamic fundamentalist
parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeL) over three
years ago.
About 200 people have died so
far and over 1,000 injured in this period. The
latest attack has a striking similarity to the
grenade attack on opposition leader Sheikh Hasina
in August, the perpetrators of which are yet to be
apprehended.
The victims of bomb attacks
have invariably been secular and progressive Awami
League leaders and the weapon used is also the
same - hand-grenades. The league is the party that
led the country to independence from Pakistan
under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina's father and
former prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who
was assassinated by pro-Pakistan fundamentalist
elements along with all other members of his
family a few years after independence in 1971.
Hasina had survived the attack as she was abroad
at that time.
India has particularly
mourned the assassination of Kibria, who defected
from Pakistan to support Bangladesh's liberation
war in 1971. A leading intellectual and columnist,
he was the country's finance minister during the
secular Awami League regime from 1996-2001. A
member of parliament from northeastern Habigonj,
adjoining the Indian state of Tripura, he was an
influential member of the party's top executive
body. India also urged Bangladesh to identify
those responsible for the attack and bring them to
justice. Manmohan and Indian External Affairs
Minister K Natwar Singh have written to Kibria's
wife expressing their condolences, a statement of
India's Ministry of External Affairs said.
Expressing deep dismay, envoys from
countries of the European Union, the United
States, India and Japan urged the government to
conduct a transparent and immediate probe into
Thursday's attack on the Awami League rally in
Habigonj. "We are deeply concerned that the
apparent failure to properly investigate previous
similar attacks have led to a climate of impunity
which encourages a continuation of such
incidents," said Anwar Chowdhury, British High
Commissioner to Bangladesh, who had himself
survived an assassination attempt earlier, though
he is a British Muslim of Bangladeshi origin. (A
bomb explosion at the holy shrine of Hazrat Shah
Jalai in Sylhet in May had killed four people and
injured the Bangladesh-born British diplomat and
80 others.) The ambassadors and high commissioners
of United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden,
France, Germany, Denmark, Norway and the European
Commission visited Kibria's Dhanmondi residence to
offer sympathy to his family.
Observers
are not sure if this is a mere coincidence that
the latest grenade attack on a League rally came
just a few days after the publication of a major
investigative report in the New York Times
exposing the role of a notorious fundamentalist
called Bangla Bhai on January 23 and the same day
several of Bhai's thugs were lynched by ordinary
folk, fed up with police inaction following the
murder of a League leader earlier. The report by
New York-based writer Eliza Griswold headlined
"For a new Taliban: The Next Islamist Revolution?"
was based on field work in the villages of
Bangladesh where Bhai's 10,000- strong militia is
known to terrorize moderate Muslims in the Taliban
fashion. The report created the present furor as
two Dhaka-based mass-circulation Bangla language
dailies simultaneously carried its translation and
some others published news stories based on the
piece the same day.
The Bangladesh foreign
ministry, however, refuted Griswold's report and
said, "It was not based on facts. There is no
scope for an Islamist revolution here."
"There is an attempt to link up the
government with 'Bangla Bhai' which is not true,"
director general of external publicity Zahirul
Haque told the media on January 25. Haque said the
government has been handling the Bangla Bhai issue
with an iron hand. In this context, quoting a
diplomat of the US Embassy in Dhaka, he said
Bangla Bhai has no organizational existence. As
many as 66 followers of Bangla Bhai were arrested
on Monday, which Hague said proves that the
government was determined to crush any kind of
activities harmful to the democratic culture and
practices of the country.
Describing
Bangladesh as a tolerant democratic country, Hague
said the country has earned praises from abroad
for its achievements in social sectors like
health, education and the empowerment of women. He
said the enrollment of girls in primary education
in Bangladesh was the highest in South Asia. Hague
said the report might have been published with "a
political motive". During the last three years, he
said, about 1,400 journalists had visited
Bangladesh, of whom three or four had written
reports which were biased and not true. Such
reports, Hague said, were unfortunate, and the
one-sided report of a remote village (Bagmara in
Rajshahi) out of nearly 90,000 villages in the
country does in no way depict the correct and
objective picture of the country.
The New
York Times report on the rise of Islamist
militancy in certain parts of northern Bangladesh
claimed that some 10,000 Islamists had regrouped,
under the banner of Jagrata Muslim Janata (JMJB or
Awakened Muslim Masses) in northern Bangladesh to
"try an Islamist revolution in several provinces
of Bangladesh that border on India". The author
reportedly interviewed the leader of the Islamist
group, locally known as Bangla Bhai, in his home
town, who claimed that it was still active, and
that, too, with the help of the local police, to
engineer an Islamic revolution. He has said that
he was now going to bring about the Talibanization
of his part of Bangladesh. Men were to grow
beards, women to wear burqas. This was all rather
new to the area, which was religiously diverse.
The report said last spring in Chittagong
police captured 10 truckloads of weapons - the
largest arms seizure in Bangladesh's history. "The
tip-off most likely came from Indian intelligence,
which monitors the arms being sent to Islamist
separatist groups in India's northeast," the New
York Times report claimed.
An Indian
intelligence source confirmed to Asia Times Online
that despite his denials, Bhai is actually a
former member of the fundamentalist
Jamaat-e-Islami, now part of the ruling coalition.
He had earned the sobriquet Bangla Bhai
(Bangladeshi Brother) in the training camps of
Afghanistan, where he used to teach the Bangla
language to foreign militants who were planning to
work in Bangladesh. His original name is Siddiqul
Islam, though at one point he claimed his real
name was Azizur Rahman.
The misdeeds of
the self-styled vigilante Bangla Bhai caught the
attention of the local media when he launched an
operation in Bagmara sub-district, an area known
for armed political activism by some ultra-left
groups, in April/May of last year. Bangla Bhai's
militia had literally taken the law into their own
hands in Bagmara and the neighboring rural
backyard of the north western district of
Rajshahi. They were administering the so-called
vigilante justice to those whom they branded as
terrorists belonging to nominal leftist
underground groups, including the gruesome torture
and killing of eight members of the banned Leftist
group, Sarbahara (Have-Nots) Party.
Since
then, the group has reportedly tortured to death
22 moderate Muslim members of the leftist groups
and maimed dozens of others. These murders have
been routinely covered by the local media. Several
national dailies have alleged that Khaleda Zia's
government was in cahoots with Bangla Bhai and his
Islamist fundamentalist group.
Also
referred to as Bangladesh's Mullah Omar - the
Taliban supremo whose government was decimated by
the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 -
Bangla Bhai is equally intolerant, fanatical and
charismatic. His self-appointed goal is to
establish a society based on the Islamic model
practiced in Wahhabi fundamentalist Saudi Arabia,
or as it was earlier in Taliban-run Afghanistan.
Practicing the extremist Wahhabi version of Islam,
he is prepared to kill moderate Muslims in cold
blood.
The New York Times report quotes
Zachary Abuza, author of Militant Islam in
Southeast Asia and a professor of political
science at Simmons College in Boston as saying:
"Bangladesh is becoming increasingly important to
groups like al-Qaeda because it's been off
everyone's radar screen. Al-Qaeda is going to have
to figure out where they can regroup, where they
have the physical capability to assemble and
train, and Bangladesh is one of these key places."
In her own study, Griswold found that the
political breach between the two major parties,
largely based on a personality clash between the
present and former prime ministers, Zia and
Hasina, is being filled primarily by JeL, which
agitated against independence from Pakistan in
1971 and remains close to the fundamentalist
establishment there. The group was banned after
independence for its role in the war but has
slowly worked its way back to political
legitimacy. The party itself has not changed much
- it was always socially conservative and unafraid
of violence. The political context, however, says
Griswold, has changed enough to give it greater
power. Since 2001JeI has been a crucial part of a
governing coalition dominated by the BNP. The two
parties have ties dating back to the late 1970s,
but only since 2001 has a politically aggressive
form of Islam found a strong place at the top of
Bangladeshi politics.
Griswold continues:
"[JeL] has found a corresponding position at the
bottom of Bangladeshi politics as well, in the
social scrum that produces figures like Bangla
Bhai. (Opposition politicians have linked Bangla
Bhai to Jamaat-e-Islami, a tie that Jamaat and
Bangla Bhai have both denied.) The border
provinces have, since independence, harbored a
proliferation of armed groups that either
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar or Pakistan, or some
region or faction in one of those countries, has
been willing to support for its own political
reasons. By the early 1990s Islamist groups began
appearing, mainly at the periphery of the jihad
centered on Afghanistan. The most important of
these has been the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
(HUJI), which has been associated with Fazlul
Rahman, who signed Osama bin Laden's famous
declaration in 1998 endorsing international,
coordinated jihad - the document that introduced
al-Qaeda to the larger world. But Bangla Bhai's
group and others have since emerged and are making
their bids for power."
In an investigation
carried earlier by journalist Hena Khan for Indian
weekly newsmagazine Outlook, Bangla Bhai was
described as a man in his mid-40s, black-bearded
and turbaned. He hails from the northwestern Bogra
district. "My actual name is Siddiqul Islam, and I
do not have any other names which appear in the
media. It's my journalist friends who created the
confusion," he once said in response to queries as
to why he was called Bangla Bhai.
In 1998,
Bangla Bhai quit JeL in protest against its
decision to accept a woman to lead Bangladesh. "We
don't believe in the present political trend," he
had then fumed. "We want to build a society based
on the Islamic model laid out in the Holy Koran
and the Hadith [sayings of Prophet Mohammad]." He
then joined the JMJB, which could have been
operating under a different nomenclature till
then.
Bangla Bhai worked underground for
six years and rose to become a member of the
JMJB's highest policy-making body, the
Majlis-e-Shura, as also its operations chief.
In her report, too, Hena Khan confirms
that JMJB's principal goal is to turn Bangladesh
into a Taliban-like state. But its spiritual
leader Maulana Abdur Rahman claims the JMJB is
involved in social welfare activities. Maulana
Rahman, like Bangla Bhai, was also a member of JeL
and, incidentally, collaborated with the Pakistani
army during Bangladesh's 1971 India-backed
liberation war. The JMJB is believed to have
10,000 militants operating in at least 17
Bangladeshi districts. The organization is well
structured: its top tier is called Ehsar which
comprises full-time members working on orders of
the leadership; its second tier is Gayeri Ehsar,
which consists of 100,000 part-time activists; at
the bottom are those who work for the organization
indirectly. Its principal sources of funding are
disguised businesses, including cold storage and
shrimp cultivation companies.
Under
pressure to tackle this menace, which was giving
Bangladesh's moderate Islam a bad name, the
BNP-led government did issue orders for Bhai's
arrest, but the police claim that he cannot be
apprehended as he has gone underground. Police say
he is on the run, but some analysts suspect "a
shadowy hand of political influence" is helping
him avoid arrest. "Police often refrain from
discharging professional duties due to their
loyalty or bias toward political parties," Abdul
Hakim Sarker, professor at the Institute of Social
Welfare and Research in Dhaka was quoted as
saying.
Before going into hiding, Bhai
admitted to several reporters he had worked in
Afghanistan with bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Some
reports have said Bangla Bhai was one of 40
Bangladeshis who used to serve bin Laden in
Afghanistan and he now uses al-Qaeda videos to
train his followers. The Dhaka-based
largest-circulated English-language newspaper The
Daily Star claimed in May last year to have
obtained video discs, including one chillingly
titled, "The Solution, The Preparation". These
videos shown to JMJB recruits contained visuals of
training imparted at the erstwhile al-Farooq
training camp in Afghanistan. The newspaper quoted
JMJB sources as saying that 20 of their comrades
who had worked with bin Laden were now assisting
Bangla Bhai.
Whether or not Bhai has
political support in the present dispensation,
there is no doubt, according to local media
analysts, that he and his followers were
originally welcomed and quietly supported by the
police, as they thought his militia would be
useful in fighting left-wing rebel groups such as
the Purba Banglar Communist Party and the
Sarbahara Party that have been active in the
region for decades. But soon the police realized
Bahai's militia was out of control and even more
dangerous than the left-wingers. "We really don't
know what to do with him. He seems powerful,
having drawn some political blessings as well.
Many people see him as a savior," a police officer
in the country's north was quoted as saying to the
local media.
Fighting left wing rebels has
come as a handy excuse for Bangla Bhai, one that
brought him initial police support and has now
turned him into a Frankenstein's monster. Police
say leftist rebels have killed hundreds since the
1980s and they were unable to eradicate them.
Hence the initial support for Bangla Bhai.
Bangladeshi analysts believe frustration with the
leftist rebels and the inability of the police to
deal with them has no doubt contributed to the
meteoric rise of Bangla Bhai. "Failure to maintain
law and order, poverty and unequal distribution of
power are the main reasons behind his rise," said
Robbaet Ferdous, assistant professor of mass
communications and journalism at Dhaka University.
Bangla Bhai was also satisfying some people's
demand for what they see as quick justice, a
former top policeman said. "Victims want immediate
revenge. They dislike seeking help of the law that
moves very slowly and also does not hold a promise
for appropriate action," said former
Inspector-General of Police, Mesbah Uddin.
According to some reports, Bhai boasts of
20,000 armed cadres and many more followers ready
to risk their lives at his call. His followers
roam the countryside, armed with guns and swords,
storming people's homes and markets to collect
money and food and striking fear into the hearts
of villagers. "Some people think Bangla Bhai is a
Robin Hood. But I think he is a terrorist," US
ambassador to Bangladesh Harry K Thomas told
reporters. His men have established a reign of
terror, torturing men and women in village after
village, according to the police. "He is a living
nightmare to anyone who had seen him or his men in
action. They are ruthless and merciless," said a
Bangladeshi journalist who has been tracking him
for some time.
With the lynching of his
men in counter mob violence, it is clear that the
local people are feeling compelled to take the law
into their own hands. His group's cruelty is
becoming legendary in the north Bangladesh
countryside. Police and villagers in western
Naogan district recently dug up a body - cut into
pieces and buried at a place Bangla Bhai once used
as a training camp. His men recently strung up two
people from trees and left their bodies hanging.
Others were left dead on a road. "It seems we're
living in mediaeval times," said an official in
Rajshahi, 275 kilometers northwest of the capital
Dhaka. Thousands of his militant cadres staged an
unprecedented rally in Rajshahi recently and vowed
"to clean Bangladesh of all underground leftist
extremists".
As the NYT report pointed
out, the border provinces have, since
independence, harbored many armed groups. By the
early 1990s, Islamist groups from the nation began
appearing, mainly at the periphery of the jihad in
Afghanistan. The most important of these has been
HUJI, though Bhai's group and others have since
emerged and are making their bid for power. Six
years ago, HUJI targeted Bangladesh's leading poet
Shamsur Rahman. This resulted in the arrest of 44
members. Two men, a Pakistani and a South African,
claimed they had been sent to Bangladesh by bin
Laden with over US$300,000, which they distributed
to 421 madrassas (religious seminaries).
But, according to the report, Gowher Rizvi,
director of the Ash Institute for Democratic
Governance and Innovation at Harvard, said bin
Laden's reported donation was "a pittance"
compared to the millions that Saudi charities had
contributed to many of Bangladesh's estimated
64,000 madrassas.
This slide into
anarchy in a region close to its borders, and the
Islamist link to al-Qaeda, is exceedingly worrying
for Indian authorities. New Delhi wouldn't want a
new Islamist flank to open in the northeast, which
is already riven by militant secessionism.
Bangladesh shares a 4,095-kilometer border with
India. Hundreds of illegal migrants, smugglers and
insurgents routinely cross the hard-to-police
India-Bangladesh border. Among the five Indian
states with which Bangladesh shares borders are
the insurgency-prone states of Tripura and Assam
in India's northeast.
New Delhi has
already decided, according to India News, that a
736 kilometer barbed wire fence be erected along
the border with Bangladesh in Tripura by 2007 to
check infiltration, smuggling and movement of
insurgents into the state. Tripura shares an 840
kilometer border with Bangladesh. The news report
quoted Indian officials as saying that the
militants of different outfits of the northeastern
region are using Bangladesh's soil and fencing the
border would be effective in checking it. India's
past experience, particularly on the
India-Pakistan border in the western state of
Punjab and now on the Line of Control in Jammu and
Kashmir, shows that fencing does yield results.
Sultan Shahin is a New
Delhi-based writer.
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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