Saroj Kumar Rath / YaleGlobal
NEW DELHI: For three years Bangladesh had witnessed sporadic
killing of minorities, free- thinking bloggers and members of LGBT community
amid signs of a growing ISIS presence. With the brutal murder of 22 diners,
workers and police at the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery, Dhaka now joins Paris,
Brussels, Orlando and Istanbul on the global map for terrorism. Distinguishing
the Dhaka suspects from others is that they belong to the country’s
western-educated elite including a senior member of the ruling party. The
homegrown bunch made sure their crime got international airing, using the
restaurant’s wifi to post ghastly images on the Islamic State website. As Bruce
Riedel, a leading expert on terrorism, has noted, Bangladeshi terrorists have
graduated from lone-wolf to wolf-pack attacks in extending the ISIS ideological
footprint into South Asia.
The massacre carried out by a group of suicidal young men
who had every reason to live not only raises questions about the appeal of
extremist ideology on an unlikely cohort – it also exposes the hollowness of
Bangladesh’s vaunted fight against terrorism, protecting the perpetrators while
targeting political opponents. Sheikh Hasina government’s dismal failure in
containing the spread of radical poison threatens to destabilize the country
and the fragile region.
Since Sheikh Hasina won the 2014 elections that were
boycotted by the opposition and since the formation of Islamic State and Al
Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, Bangladesh has witnessed the killings of 18
persons in daylight attacks, ISIS–al Qaeda style. The Bangladeshi authorities
insisted that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an organization formed in 1998,
was behind the restaurant attack, and there is no denying that the militants
were linked to JMB, but in the November issue of Dabiq, the Islamic State’s
magazine, the group’s chief in Bangladesh, Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif,, had praised
JMB for its intent and capacity to resist “the effect of both European
colonization and Hindu cultural invasion.”
Extremist organizations in Bangladesh work in a fluid
environment where cross-fertilization is the norm of the day. Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh has direct
contact with Afghan Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e Islami and
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Hizb-ut-Tahrir is banned, but operates in the
country. There is undeniable sprinkling of Islamic State militants and
Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Al Qaeda affiliate, in Bangladesh.
For its own reasons, Bangladesh has chosen to turn a blind
eye to foreign inspirations. Last year when one Italian aid worker and a
Japanese farmer were killed, ISIS was quick to claim responsibility. But a
police investigation alleged that opposition leader Khalida Zia’s Bangladesh
National Party workers orchestrated such attacks.
Independent secular bloggers, four in total, have been
killed in similar fashion. The profile of other victims, comprised of non-Sunni
Bangladeshi Muslims, Hindus, Christians, visiting foreigners and atheists
confused local authorities. All the attacks were owned either by Islamic State
or Al Qaeda, but the government refused to accept the presence of offshore
militant organizations in the country, perhaps to reassure foreign investors. A
nonchalant home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, reiterated, “There’s no
organizational existence of IS.” The prime minister preempted police by alleging
the attacks were the handiwork of opposition parties.
The inception of International Crimes Tribunal by Sheikh
Hasina’s Awami League Government in 2010 was used as a forum to settle
political and personal scores on the nation’s founding tragedy – war crimes
committed during the liberation war against Pakistan. Ongoing conflict between
the two major political parties, the Bangladesh National Party, which considers
itself custodian of Bangladeshi nationalism, and the Awami League, which
regards itself as the sole guiding force of Bangladeshi liberation, has left
the field open to ISIS and Al Qaeda to recruit militants.
As ISIS emerged in 2014, thousands of extremists from across
the globe headed to Syria and Iraq. Authorities across the world, including
those in Bangladesh, conveniently ignored the outflow of homegrown militants.
Bangladeshi intelligence had alerted its government long ago that hundreds of
their residents had traveled to Syria and Iraq to participate in Islamic
State’s jihad to establish an Islamic Caliphate. High-ranking Bangladeshi
intelligence officials noted that about 25 Bangladeshi militants have returned
to the country from the Syrian and Iraqi theaters of war, and the same is true
for India where security agencies have arrested three Indians who had
participated in jihad in Syria. Indian cybersecurity experts have profiled ISIS
propaganda in South Asia and tracked returnees from Syria and Iraq while also
following the spread of ISIS ideology through the internet. Despite such monitoring,
it was only a matter of time for militants driven out of ISIS strongholds in
Syria and Iraq to return to their homelands. What ISIS lost in terms of
territory in Syria and Iraq, it has regained in terms of influence.
The reverse flow of ISIS ideology, if not fighters, was
quick in Europe and the United States in cities like Paris, Brussels, Istanbul
and Orlando. In these cases, although de-radicalization methods were adopted by
security agencies, local authorities tried to downplay the ISIS presence,
fearing such admissions might be construed as a failure on the part of the
incumbent government.
Since 2014, social media has indicated growing cooperation
between ISIS and Bangladeshi extremist groups like Ansar ul Bangla Team,
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and AQIS. A
confabulated Dhaka Police discounted the possibility of the Islamic State’s
presence in Bangladesh. In June, complicating the topography of extremism,
Bangladesh police arrested 5,000 suspected militants from various groups
including ISIS.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is helping Sheikh Hasina
on many fronts. Both leaders get along well on many issues including
containment of Islamic extremism. Although Modi and his ministers repeatedly
disclaim the infiltration of ISIS in India, security agencies, especially
cybersecurity wings, are known to constantly feed the government with real-time
information about ISIS activities in India and neighboring countries.
It’s no secret that Indian radicals run a Twitter handle and
other propaganda mechanisms for ISIS from Indian cities. One such recruiter is
in Indian custody. Fearing the growing impact of ISIS, Modi himself initiated a
session on de-radicalization at the annual meeting of state police chiefs at
Rann of Katch in Gujarat. Nevertheless a lack of coordination among state and
federal security agencies, as well as the inefficiency of state police and
political rivalries, is taking a toll on India’s anti-terror policy. Reelection
of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, accused of being soft on Islamic terrorism
and Bangladeshi migrants, is a setback for Modi. India is like a landmine
field, with extreme poverty, inequality in education and other opportunities,
and a Muslim minority feeling marginalized. With the retreat of ISIS from Syria
and Iraq, it’s more than likely that the ideology will soon reach Indian cities
with a Dhaka-like attack waiting to unfold.
Closer scrutiny of the perpetrators’ profiles in Friday’s
attack suggests that some children of the country’s elite are disillusioned
with Bangladeshi politics and inspired by the Islamic State’s vision of an
Islamic caliphate. Some have been silently radicalized by militant Islamists.
Bangladeshi youth are exposed to real and imaginary pains of the Muslim world,
and ISIS ideology carries appeal. Street struggles between the country’s
leading political parties, hampering development of Bangladesh, has left
educated, employable but impressionable youths disenchanted with the ability of
political leaders to resolve problems. Prolonged political fights alienate the
country’s elite, a sure way for the government to lose the country to the
brutal ideologies of ISIS and its affiliates.
Saroj Kumar Rath, PhD, is assistant professor at the
University of Delhi and an expert on security affairs in South Asia.
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