Sunil Raman / FirstPost
Denials by Bangladesh government notwithstanding,
intelligence agencies in India strongly suspect that the country has
become the next battleground for Islamist terror groups. Indian security
experts believe that with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State under attack in
Afghanistan/Pakistan area, terror groups have decided to focus on
Bangladesh by joining hands with local militant groups.
After
a spate of killings of Hindus, Christians, secularists and a gay
activist the latest to be threatened is the head of Rama Krishna Mission
in Dhaka. At India’s request Bangladesh has provided security cover to
the Mission head who has been warned that there is no place for Hindus
in an Islamic country.
The Al-Qaeda in Indian
Sub-continent (AQIS) was formed in 2014 and Islamic State announced its
arrival in Bangladesh in April 2016. In Bangladesh Ansar ul Islam is the
Bangladesh division of Al-Qaeda.
With Bangladesh as a base they plan to target India and also focus on Myanmar.
Denying
the existence of IS in Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has,
however, put the blame for such attacks on local militants and political
opponents. She has vowed to tackle them but her assessment is viewed
with scepticism in New Delhi and many western capitals.
On a visit to Dhaka last month the US Assistant Secretary
of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, was quoted as
having spoken of Bangladesh terrorist groups, linking them with Al-Qaeda
and IS.
In over one year the war crimes tribunal set up by the Awami League government convicted several people including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami
who have been hanged for mass murders of 1970s. Their convictions
further fuelled opposition to Sheikh Hasina and her government.
Assessment
by experts show that growing violence and killings of Hindus,
Christians, secular bloggers, gays and missionaries is different from
the political violence that Bangladesh has known for decades.
Bangladesh’s
deeply divided politics controlled by two women — Awami League of
Sheikh Hasina and BNP of Khaleda Zia – has seen violence become a part
of its landscape. Political vendetta has often taken the form of
gruesome killings but new attacks belong to a new category of violence.
Experts
argue that the nature and scale of these violent attacks are different.
The Bangladesh government remains in denial mode asserting that Islamic
State has no presence in the country.
On 12 June, newspaper Dhaka Tribune quoted
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal as having said that “there are a
few local homegrown militant groups but we have never found any kind of
IS activity here,” he said.
The minister said the
propaganda about IS’ presence in Bangladesh was “nothing but a
conspiracy established by a group in support of some foreign countries.”
Inspector
General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque echoed the home minister. He
claimed to have settled down around 80 percent militant cases that
happened in the past couple of years and none arrested in connection
with those cases have admitted having involvement with the IS or any
other group.
“In some incidents, especially in Satkania
or Chittagong communal violence, we arrested a number of accused and
all of them later confessed that all these activities were done at the
directive of some top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir,” added the police chief in the newspaper report.
Over
30 people have been killed in last one year with 10 chopped to death
with machettes and knives. Most of the killers riding on 'mobikes'
disappear with government agencies quite clueless about their identity.
Over
5,000 people have been arrested in a crackdown that prime minister
Sheikh Hasina has claimed would see security agencies “catch every
killer.”
Indian authorities, however, are alarmed by
jihadist literature that is in circulation. In April the
English-magazine of Islamic State, Dābiq, carried an interview with the terror outfit’s Bangladesh head named Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif.
Asked
to explain the importance of Bangladesh which they call ‘Bengal’ he
pinpointed its importance to its “strategic geographic position” that
would “facilitate performing guerilla attacks inside India
simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush in India…” In Arabic the word, ‘tawahhush’ means chaos.
Security experts told Firstpost
that the interview speaks of Islamic State’s intent to target Hindus,
Christians, Shias, missionaries and Muslim sects like Qadianis.
Published in several languages including English, Dābiq is the official magazine of Islamic State.
Last week, Dhaka Tribune
quoted a leading geopolitical intelligence and consulting firm,
Stratfor, that the “biggest impediments” to the Islamic State’s
expansion in Bangladesh will be al-Qaeda’s branch in the Indian
subcontinent and its allies.
But, there is no evidence to show that these two outfits that are competing in Iraq and Syria are at loggerheads in Bangladesh.
The
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced two years ago a plan
for South Asia where he called upon the people of Bangladesh to “launch a
massive public uprising (intifada) in defense of Islam against the
enemies of Islam.”
In recent months Singapore deported 25 workers for being “radicalised” and eight were detained for planning terror strikes.
These
pointers do not seem to have perturbed the Bangladesh government as it
continues to blame Jamaat and local militant groups.
However,
India, seriously concerned by developments in the neighbouring country
sees growing threats and killing of Hindus as a bad omen.
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