Dhaka is crazy and beautiful

Brad Wong / Scroll.In 

Around this time last year, I had brunch at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan locality. Last weekend, it was the site of a terrible terrorist attack in which at least 22 people – four Bangladeshis and 18 foreigners – lost their lives.

I developed a soft spot for Dhaka and its people after visiting it four times in less than a year, working with the NGO BRAC, academics and the government on a research project to identify effective development policies for the country. On each occasion, I uncovered more and more of the intense and strange beauty of this city of 15 million people. It is no secret that Dhaka is a hard place to live in, and one could easily dismiss it as a charmless, chaotic megacity. My experience is that the greatness of Dhaka lies hidden in the small and everyday interactions with its people.

Beauty in the ordinary

I remember, on my first afternoon, standing on a street corner at dusk as the call to prayer went out. Even though I couldn’t understand a word, I was touched so profoundly by the depth of feeling in the sound that I couldn’t tell if the imam was praying or singing to my soul.

On another occasion, I hopped on a boat that ferries passengers between the edge of Banani lake, near the upmarket area of Gulshan, and a large watery slum only a 100 metres away. I ended up being the target of a collective and harmless joke as the boat full of commuters, realising I couldn’t speak Bengali, decided to negotiate the fare for me. They bid the price of my ride to 250 times the normal amount while I looked on, confused and concerned. The boatman, in his good nature did not accept, but everyone, including me, had a great laugh.

I happened to be in Dhaka once during the festival of Holi, and found myself in the city’s Hindu quarter. That day I was shown around by two university students who volunteer as walking tour guides – and as we laughed, danced and played the Hindu festival of colours – they made sure I was not lost in the throng and having a good time. It is these interactions – generous, wholehearted and open – that build the fabric of all communities. Dhaka is crazy, flawed and beautiful because of them.

Dark places

The Gulshan terrorist attack has shaken the country to its core, and has forced a deep and honest reflection. How should we respond in the face of such darkness? Indeed, the whole world has been asking and responding to this very question for years.

Terrorism is the short-term, aggressive and overt act that shocks us deeply. Our response – fear – is the long-term, insidious, and debilitating degradation that we fail to recognise. Terrorism is such a potent force, not because it kills, but because it is a fear multiplier.

Fear ends up eating away at the heart of society. It blinds us to our innate commonality. Fear thrives on separation, and it rejects union. It leads us into dark places, makes us build walls and tricks us into thinking the world is a dangerous place when, really, it is magical and magnificent.

This is not some feel-good ideal – it is a clear conclusion of the statistics. Terrorism accounts for about 0.06% of deaths globally every year. You are at least 600 times more likely to die from things you do to yourself than to die from terrorism.

As individuals, I don’t think we can really do anything to prevent terrorism. By its nature it is random, it is politically motivated and you’re very unlikely to encounter a terrorist anyway – it is somewhat beyond the realm of individual action. But the one thing we can do is not indulge in fear. That is completely within our control. When we cease succumbing to fear and reject those who fan its flames, that is the greatest act of defiance we can take against terrorism.

- Brad Wong is an Australian development economist.

Charge or Release Holey Attack Hostages: HRW

(New York) – Bangladeshi authorities should guarantee all due process rights of two detainees who had been held hostage by armed gunmen during the July 1 siege on the Holey Artisan Bakery Café in Dhaka, Human Rights Watch said today. The two men, Hasanat Karim and Tahmid Khan, were initially held for questioning by authorities but have neither been charged nor released.

Armed gunmen attacked the café on the night of July 1, killing more than 20 people and holding others inside hostage. Security forces stormed the café on the morning of July 2, killing several of the gunmen, and securing the safety of the remaining 13 hostages. The hostages were taken to the Detective Branch headquarters, where they were questioned by the authorities.

All hostages, except for Karim, 47, and Khan, 22, were released on July 3. Their families have had little or no official information about their safety and whereabouts since. They have been allowed to send medicine and clothes, but are unsure if those were delivered to the detainees. The detainees have not been produced promptly before a judge, a right enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a party.

“The attack on the café was a horrific event, and the authorities should conduct thorough investigations by questioning those held hostage – but they must do so in a rights-respecting manner,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Karim and Khan have not had access to a lawyer, and the police continue to deny holding them although they are clearly still being held by the Detective Branch. The authorities need to either charge or release them immediately.”

Human Rights Watch noted that Bangladeshi security forces have an extensive and well-documented history of custodial abuse, including torture. Given this history, there is a real risk of harm during detention and interrogation. Human Rights Watch has documented torture and custodial abuse of those detained by Bangladeshi security forces, including of one of its own consultants, in 2008. A 2012 Human Rights Watch report documented the mass arrests, torture, and custodial deaths of those suspected of involvement in a 2009 mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles. Subsequent investigations by Human Rights Watch before and after the violent elections in January 2014 documented arbitrary and illegal arrests, leading in some cases to disappearances and deaths. Most recently, Human Rights Watch expressed concern at the nearly 15,000 mass arbitrary arrests by the government in a much-delayed reaction to a spate of killings of bloggers, atheists, foreigners, and gay rights activists.

Karim is a UK national and Khan is a resident of Canada. Human Rights Watch called upon both the UK and Canadian authorities to press for consular access to ensure the safety and well-being of the detainees.

“The authorities holding Karim and Khan are bound by Bangladeshi law and international law to ensure that both men are accorded their full due process rights, including the right to a lawyer and the right to be produced before a magistrate, both of which are key in ensuring their physical well-being and freedom from custodial abuse,” said Adams. “The length of time the two men have been held incommunicado is a direct violation of their basic rights.”

Human Rights Watch called on the Bangladeshi authorities to admit to the detentions of the two men, to make clear their whereabouts, and to protect their rights.

Analyst: Country Not Positioned to Fight Domestic Terrorism

Steve Miller / VoA / July 08, 2016


A specialist in South Asian political and military affairs says Bangladesh is in a poor position to manage escalating terrorist attacks in the country.

Speaking on VOA’s Asia Weekly podcast, Christine Fair, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, attributes the problem to the high degree of politicization within the Bangladeshi police and judiciary.

What Bangladesh "fundamentally suffers from is that the two parties, the Awami League and the BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party], have two different narratives of what the nation is," Fair said, describing the country as "evenly divided."

"The BNP, more right of center, acknowledges the place of Islam in politics, and the Awami League undermines that," she said.

The government could turn to outside help in combating and investigating attacks, she said, but when assistance has been provided from countries like the United States, the results have been mixed. Atop this, there's the problem of poor crime scene mismanagement, she said; even if help is provided in a given case, the evidence authorities may be seeking may no longer be there.

Fair spoke after Thursday's attack on a police post in Kishoreganj, about 140 kilometers from Dhaka, which occurred as hundreds of thousands were gathering at a festival marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. One police officer was killed in a bomb blast and another was stabbed. Reports from the scene also indicated a woman was killed and more than a dozen people were wounded.

Authorities said two of the attackers were killed and a third was captured. Officials haven’t linked the assailants to any particular organization, but the Islamic State (IS) group had released a video earlier claiming there would be more violence in Bangladesh.

Bakery siege

This attack came about a week after gunmen entered the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, where 20 hostages were killed. The previous day a Hindu priest had been hacked to death, some two weeks after authorities rounded up 12,000 suspected criminals.

While IS claimed responsibility for the bakery attack, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told AFP the attackers were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a domestic group that’s been banned for more than 10 years. Khan said there was no connection to IS.

According to an AP report, some of the men who carried out the bakery attack had been missing for months, alarming their families. The men also appeared to have come from privileged backgrounds, had grown up loved and were educated at top schools.


Counter terror abilities

So does the government have a handle on things? And is it doing enough to keep the streets safe?

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, a filmmaker in Bangladesh, said,“Bangladesh has never been ready for this kind of military attack. We don’t know how to combat it.”

Georgetown's Fair said that even though authorities have rounded up thousands of suspects in an effort to curb violence, “the government is much more interested in breaking the backs of the BNP, which is the primary rival party, and its partner, Jamaat-e-Islami. So the Sheikh Hasina government has been very sensitive to any kind of criticism that her efforts to smash the back of Jamaat have had these negative effects.”

Fair said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is facing criticism from the international community for waving aside the notion that IS or other groups were making inroads in the country.

She is also under pressure for “essentially stifling freedom of speech and ... aggressively cracking down on the media that was critical of her and what she was doing."

"One of the immediate criticisms [of the large-scale roundup] is that they were basically BNP party workers, as opposed to people that are involved in terrorism,” she said.

That point wasn’t lost on Farooki.

“When they decide to run an operation to arrest the Islamic militants, then we think this is right,” the filmmaker said. “But when they end up arresting 12,000 opposition workers or supporters, then here comes the question, because they are not the Islamic militants.”

Fair raised a question about Sheikh Hasina’s motives: “Is she really interested in taking on this terrorism menace, or is she interested in continuing [a policy] to eliminate all of her political foes?”

“Support for Jamaat-e-Islami is actually really high in Bangladesh,” Fair said, “so [Sheikh Hasina’s] approach of basically trying to eviscerate a party that has considerable support suggests that she is kind of out of touch. Not only that, the idea that everyone [in Jamaat] is involved in terrorism or is a culprit in war crimes is also quite absurd.

"So she has put herself in a situation ... where ordinary pious Muslims that [want a] different kind of state really don’t have a political channel through which they can act. ... [And this] gives fear that she is actually providing an incentive for some of these violent entrepreneurs to do what they have done.”

Police must establish fate and whereabouts: Amnesty International

Bangladeshi authorities must immediately establish the fate and whereabouts of a surviving hostage from the recent Dhaka restaurant attack who has been missing since taken by police for questioning 10 days ago, Amnesty International said today.

Fears are growing for the well-being of Hasnat Karim, who was trapped with his wife and two children in Dhaka’s Holey Bakery on 1 July, when gunmen attacked and killed more than 20 people.

The family was taken into custody by the police for questioning on 2 July, and all except Hasnat Karim were released on 3 July.

“Hasnat Karim’s family must immediately be told whether the Bangladeshi authorities are still holding him in custody and if so allow him contact with the outside world. They have already suffered a traumatic episode, and his enforced disappearance prolongs their ordeal,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director.

“The arbitrary response of the Bangladeshi authorities to Hasnat Karim’s case risks further undermining the trust of the population in the government’s ability to defend their rights to life and liberty. The victims of the 1 July attack deserve justice. Whether Hasnat Karim is a witness or a suspect, he must receive due process, regardless of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.”

The Bangladeshi authorities have issued conflicting claims about Hasnat Karim’s whereabouts. On 10 July, Maudur Rahman, the Deputy Commissioner of the Dhaka Police claimed that Hasnat Karim had been released four days earlier. His statement directly contradicted information the Detective Branch gave the family on 9 July, when they said the police still had Hasnat Karim in custody.

“The contradictory claims in this case will inevitably heighten concerns. If the authorities do have Hasnat Karim in custody, then they must release him immediately or produce him in a court of law for any charges to be filed against him,” said Champa Patel.

The family is also concerned about Hasnat Karim’s health. He suffers a heart condition and requires regular treatment.

“Hasnat Karim’s family’s fears must be addressed. The Bangladeshi authorities have a poor track record when it comes to human rights in custody, with violations including torture and other ill-treatment, often to obtain ‘confessions’ and the denial of medical treatment,” said Champa Patel.

Background Information:

Enforced disappearances are a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Bangladesh is a state party, and an international crime.

An enforced disappearance typically occurs when state agents arrest or abduct a person but then refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or conceal the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, placing him or her outside the protection of the law.

Once out of the public eye, individuals subjected to enforced disappearance are at great risk torture, other ill-treatment, and death.

The attacks were a product of fractious politics

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch

Many attending the vigil at London’s Trafalgar Square following the Dhaka attack were more than a little red-eyed with despair. All of us who had worked in the country watched the grim hostage crisis play out in a city so familiar, at a restaurant many of us had frequented. By the time security forces stormed in—killing most of the gunmen—21 hostages and two police officers were dead.

At the gathering, most talked about Faraz Hossain, a young Bangladeshi man who the attackers allegedly offered freedom. He chose not to leave because they had refused to release his two friends, non-Bangladeshi women. People spoke of the choices young people make, contrasting Faraz with the attackers, also men in their twenties, who too belonged to affluent Bangladeshi families. They chose instead to carry out a massacre.

Though there is no evidence at this point that the Islamic State was involved in ordering or assisting in this latest massacre, the organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIL is always happy to embrace those who say they carried out such senseless acts of violence on its behalf. The Bangladeshi government denies any links to ISIL, however. “They are members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh,” or JMB, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan has stated, referring to a domestic militant group. “They have no connections with the [Islamic State].”

Unfortunately, many in Bangladesh and abroad find it just as hard to have faith in government assertions. Bangladesh has been locked in a bitter dispute between the ruling Awami League party and two opposition groups, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. Violence has broken out at opposition street protests, while the government responded with arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has been in denial about the possibility of international involvement in attacks over the past two years on bloggers, secularists, academics, and members of the LGBTQ community, among others, apparently unwilling to envision any threat other than that from the political opposition.

This blinkered approach has meant that the government has simply stood by as assaults by Islamist groups escalate, from machete attacks on bloggers to the latest hostage situation. It led officials to effectively blame the victims by recommending that writers engage in self-censorship in order to avoid offending extremist Muslims. The attacks became more frequent in recent months, with religious minorities targeted, as well as gay-rights activists.

Until the wife of a police officer was killed, the government did little to investigate the attacks or to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. Under international pressure following the killing of two gay-rights activists, the government randomly arrested over 15,000 people, many of them suspected supporters of the opposition, particularly madrassa-affiliated members of Jamaat’s student wing. Several of them were members of the JMB, the authorities said, a group which has been banned for more than a decade and yet is now suspected by the government to be behind the Dhaka attack.

A few of the attackers who were caught after allegedly committing the machete attacks mysteriously died while in the custody of security forces. Bangladeshi security forces are notorious for extrajudicial executions popularly known as “crossfire killings,” which they falsely claim are carried out in self-defense when security forces return the alleged suspect to the scene of the crime. Even senior members of the police admit these executions are routine, yet they have persisted under Awami League and BNP governments alike, leading to a vicious circle between the government of the day and opponents.

It is into this space that organized violence has grown and spread.

At the vigil, people wondered if the truth would ever come out. Who organized these killings? How did the killers become radicalized? And how will it end? Will the country’s political leaders finally unite to address the threat of violent crime by fundamentalists that afflicts people across party lines?

What is needed now is responsible, rights-respecting governance, proper investigations, and an end to political mudslinging. Do Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh’s other leaders have the political courage to put their country and people ahead of their personal and party self-interest? Thus far, the indications are not encouraging.

Governments with strong ties to Bangladesh—and especially those with a history of bilateral cooperation and technical trainings, including to security forces—need to speak up now. The United States, the United Kingdom, and India, to start. It is time encourage the Bangladeshi government to adopt human rights-respecting strategies to address these terrible attacks, and to prevent future ones.

Time is running out. On July 8, three people were killed at a Bangladesh checkpoint when gunmen carrying bombs tried to attack a gathering to mark the Muslim Eid holiday.

ISIS threat rising in Bangladesh, experts say

By Nicole Ireland / CBC News

"The Islamic State is expanding its reach around the globe, and its latest focus is on Bangladesh," the report warned.

Those words were published by Stratfor, a global intelligence company based in Austin, Texas, on April 26 — more than two months before militants killed 20 hostages in a restaurant in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, and ISIS claimed responsibility.

On Thursday, extremists struck again, hurling homemade bombs at police guarding an Eid-al-Fitr prayer service to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Kishoreganj district, about 90 kilometres north of Dhaka. Four people died, including one of the attackers, and more than a dozen others were injured. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but after the restaurant attack, ISIS threatened more violence in Bangladesh.  

"There's definitely a groundswell of jihadism there," said Scott Stewart, Stratfor's vice-president of tactical analysis and a former special agent with the U.S. State Department.

The Bangladeshi government has denied ISIS was responsible for either of the recent attacks, blaming them on domestic militant groups. But terrorism experts, including Stewart, disagree, saying that such groups within Bangladesh are likely affiliated with ISIS or rival organization al-Qaeda.

ISIS has ruthlessly targeted Muslims, particularly Shia, it deems to be apostates.

"I believe the fact that [Thursday's attack] targeted a religious gathering is a sign that it was Islamic State-related," Stewart said. "Al-Qaeda specifically prohibits such attacks in their doctrine."

The battle for control between ISIS and al-Qaeda is one factor that makes Bangladesh especially vulnerable to attacks, experts say.

"Bangladesh is very relevant [as a target]," said Kamran Bokhari, a fellow at George Washington University's extremism program and a senior lecturer at the University of Ottawa. "It allows ISIS to say, 'Look, we're in South Asia.'"

"South Asia used to be al-Qaeda's turf," he added. "Al-Qaeda is now bitter that ISIS is encroaching on it."

Stewart said he's worried that both ISIS and al-Qaeda will try to surpass each other in violent attacks in Bangladesh.

"I'm really concerned we're going to see an escalation as al-Qaeda tries to respond in kind, to keep themselves relevant," he said. "At the same time, I think that Islamic State supporters are going to want to continue to kind of add on, you know, to their gains."

Up to this point, Stewart said, attacks in Bangladesh appear to have been carried out largely by local groups who may be acting on behalf of ISIS, but likely haven't had specialized training in bombs or other weaponry. That means the attacks could have been "far more deadly" than they were, he said.

"My largest concern is that we are going to see an infusion of more seasoned terrorists who will return to Bangladesh from Syria and Iraq," Stewart said. "That could ramp up the threat level considerably."

Exploiting 'local grievances'

Internal strife in Bangladesh, including long-established radical groups, make it fertile ground for ISIS, Stratfor said. 

"For the Islamic State, followers of these groups represent a vast pool of potential recruits," the firm said in its April report, while acknowledging some of those local groups could also become ISIS rivals. 

Tension between the Bangladeshi government and opposition critics — some of whom were arrested in 2015, according to Human Rights Watch — feeds into the interests of ISIS, Bokhari said.

"They are always scouting out and looking for areas where they can exploit local grievances and find allies and partners," he said. "When there is so much, you know, anti-government sentiment, that just works for ISIS."

Faiz Sobhan, research director in the foreign policy, security and countering violent extremism section of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, said he doesn't know definitively if ISIS has set its sights on the country, but there are reasons it might.

"Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim majority country, with the third or fourth largest Muslim population in the world," Sobhan said in an email to CBC News. "A group like ISIS may be keen to test the waters and gauge what sort of reaction it obtains in such a country."

"Their global brand resonates with many extremist groups internationally and local groups in Bangladesh may wish to jump on the ISIS bandwagon to garner more attention," he said. "As ISIS begins to suffer more battlefield losses in their heartland [Iraq and Syria], they are increasingly focusing on setting up shop in new territories."

Nicole Ireland is an online and broadcast journalist for CBC News. Based in Toronto, she has lived and worked in Thunder Bay, Ont.; Iqaluit, Nunavut; and Beirut, Lebanon.

The government must respond with justice: FIDH

(Paris, 4 July 2016):  FIDH strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place in a café in Dhaka’s Gulshan District on Friday 1 July, killing 20 people. FIDH expresses its sincere solidarity with the victims, the survivors and their families and with all those who have suffered the consequences of terrorist violence across the world.

FIDH reiterates that the Bangladeshi government must ensure the safety of all of its citizens and residents of Bangladesh, and must do so in accordance with human rights and international law. The authorities must develop effective strategies to counter the rise of religious militancy, and to promote respect and non-discrimination. The government must protect the right of free peaceful expression, stop denying the presence of global terrorist networks in Bangladesh, and refrain from extreme “security measures” in violation of due process rights. In addition, the authorities must thoroughly investigate the increasing violence allegedly committed by religious extremists in the country, notably the latest attack on 1 July, with an aim to bring the perpetrators to justice through impartial and transparent judicial processes.

Sadly, no such investigations nor judicial proceedings have taken place for the numerous attacks against activists and religious minorities in the past year. Instead, under the guise of “preventing the emergence of militancy” in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh security forces executed a wave of mass arrests two weeks ago that resulted in the detention of over 15,500 people in just seven days. However, only a small fraction of those arrested two weeks ago were suspected ‘militants’, and there were many reports of regular civilians with no priori arrest warrants being detained and forced to pay bribes in exchange for their release. In addition, members of the political opposition and human rights activists are currently in prison or constantly threatened for speaking out against violations or being critical of the regime. The government has also recently put forth increasingly restrictive laws in the name of national security that severely restrict fundamental freedoms and target human rights defenders and dissenting voices.

The fight against terrorism and security concerns cannot be used as a pretext for violating people’s most basic rights. The increasing violence in Bangladesh will not be addressed by such sweeping "security measures". The mass detention of people with no warrant and total disregard for due process will only exacerbate the climate of impunity felt throughout the country, which has led to the proliferation of violence and terrorist attacks.

FIDH therefore reiterates its call for independent and transparent investigations into the violent murders, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and terrorist threats that have and continue to take place in Bangladesh, regardless of the background and political or religious affiliation of the perpetrators. Addressing impunity, with respect for due process and fundamental rights, is the only way to counter the social and political violence and re-establish a sense of rule of law in Bangladesh.

- FIDH is an international human rights NGO federating 178 organizations from close to 120 countries. Since 1922, FIDH has been defending all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as set out in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. FIDH's headquarters are in Paris and the organization has offices in Abidjan, Bamako, Brussels, Conakry, Geneva, The Hague, New-York, Pretoria and Tunis.

Dhaka and the Terrorist Threat

By Sumit Ganguly and Ali Riaz / Foreign Affairs

In the past 18 months, a series of attacks on secular bloggers, public intellectuals, Hindu and Buddhist priests, and a few foreigners has shaken Bangladesh. The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for much of the bloodshed. The group’s formal claim aside, it is not entirely clear whether it masterminded the attacks. What is clear, however, is that the government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed has continued to deny that the terrorist group has a presence in her country at all.  

After a strike on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s tony Gulshan neighborhood that led to 20 deaths last week, Hasina publicly condemned the “heinous attack” and promised to stamp out terrorism in the country. However, in her 12-minute speech, she still failed to acknowledge the presence of ISIS in Bangladesh. She did at least seem to grudgingly accept that the Gulshan attack represented an escalation from what she referred to as prior “stray killings.”

Hasina’s reticence is somewhat surprising. As the leader of the largest secular party in the country, she should have few qualms about taking an unequivocal stance against rising religious zealotry. (Since 2013, extremists have killed over 30 individuals; few, if any, of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.) Instead, Hasina has passed the blame onto the principal opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and one of its allies, the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami. “The BNP–Jamaat nexus has been engaged in such secret and heinous murders in various forms to destabilize the country,” she asserted. Even foreign countries aren’t free of suspicion: “The British government should take more steps on the ground. Jamaat has a strong influence in East London.”

Such statements are part of a strategy that has successfully marginalized Jamaat-i-Islami and the BNP. Dhaka has relied on dubious legal measures as well. According to a Bangladeshi human rights organization, Odhikar, there have been as many as 202 disappearances of dissidents and opposition politicians since 2009. The Rapid Action Battalion, a government paramilitary force, critics claim, is responsible. The normally feisty press in Bangladesh is also under siege. As of earlier this year, the government had lodged as many as 79 cases against the editor of the prominent newspaper, The Daily Star. Its sister Bengali-language newspaper, Prothom Alo, faced as many as 25 defamation cases. Meanwhile, a widely criticized International Criminal Tribunal has sentenced as many as nine key Jamaat-i-Islami members to the death penalty. Four have already died.

At the same time, Hasina and her party, the Awami League, do not want to be seen as entirely hostile to Islamist sentiment for electoral reasons. (In 2008 parliamentary elections, the Jamaat-e-Islami secured 4.48 percent of votes. Other Islamist parties secured additional 1.79 percent.) And so, the ruling party has reportedly developed a warm relationship with the Hefazat-e-Islam, an obscurantist religious group that demanded the introduction of an anti-blasphemy law in 2013. In the end, the law did not pass. However, the ostensibly secular Awami League relegated itself to a passive spectator when the Hefazat-e-Islam promised bloodshed in April of this year after the Bangladesh Supreme Court considered a legal challenge to the role of Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh. (The court, in the end, dismissed the petition on a technicality.)
In the Awami League’s view, this fence-sitting has little to do with the ISIS-related violence of the past year and a half, which was in itself inconsequential. In fact, Hasina even partially exculpated a terrorist who attacked a blogger who had written about the prevalence of superstitions in the country. She argued that while freedom of expression was valuable, it should not amount to a license for hurting “religious sentiments.”
For the first time, ISIS claimed responsibility for taking hostages and for targeting a large group of foreigners. In the absence of a strong government response, however, terrorists have become bolder. ISIS, for example, initially targeted secular activists. Then, in October of last year, it moved on to attacking religious minorities including Bangladesh’s small Shia community. The move was an attempt to sow sectarian discord in a country that has long avoided denominational disharmony. 

The most recent attack was yet another escalation. For the first time, ISIS claimed responsibility for taking hostages and for targeting a large group of foreigners. More to the point, the group carried out its brazen strike in a diplomatic enclave of Dhaka that is known as a high-security area. To launch such a successful attack there, the terrorists would have had to make it through the multiple rings of security that envelop the capital city and particularly a posh neighborhood.

What is also striking is that, although ISIS promptly assumed responsibility for the killings, it did not make any demands on the government even as it detained over 30 people. Most likely, the militant group just wanted to demonstrate that it had the ability to strike with impunity.

It is not yet clear if the latest bloodshed will be a wake-up call for Dhaka. Despite Hasina’s apparent resolve to crack down on terrorism, her aversion to  acknowledging ISIS’ presence in the country was telling. The prior killings, no doubt, were atrocious. However, this attack leaves no doubt that ISIS’ reach is expanding. The terrorists involved in last week’s attack and in previous ones were upper middle class, urbanites. And with such pockets of support, ISIS is sure to be readying itself for the next plot.

The rest of the world should recognize the seriousness of the problem and work with Dhaka and civil society groups to counter the conditions that have spawned these terrorist groups. This may also be an opportune time to broaden intelligence cooperation with Bangladesh, to work with the regime to bolster the capabilities of its security forces, and to enable it to secure its very porous borders. Indeed, if anything, the attack highlighted the failure of the country’s intelligence and security services. The problem may have stemmed from those services’ politicization under this regime as well as earlier ones. Human rights and civil society organizations have repeatedly claimed that these entities have increasingly come under the thumb of the Awami League.

Perhaps this tragedy will convince the regime to refrain from further diminishing the autonomy of these bodies, improve their training, and enhance their professionalism. Even though the hostage crisis ended swiftly, the various units involved could not prevent the brutal murder of 20 people before the matter was brought to a close.

Finally, although it will be no easy task, Bangladesh will need to devote greater resources to making its borders stronger. The terrorists responsible for this incident were all from within Bangladesh. However, they have obvious links with transnational terror groups. In this context it is important to recall that one of the domestic groups, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-Islami was an original signatories of Osama bin Laden’s 1998 fatwa against the West.

The government and the international community’s continued cynicism could not only further destabilize this hitherto moderate Muslim nation, but also allow ISIS to expand its domain into the wider South Asian region.

Inspired by ISIS, Made in Bangladesh

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.

Look inside: Opinion from The Telegraph

The Holey Artisan Bakery siege places Bangladesh firmly on the global terror map and no amount of wistful denial on its part will change that fact. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which has claimed credit for the massacre, may not have been in actual control of the operation, as the Sheikh Hasina Wajed government insists. But no government in its right mind would deny its influence in transforming the face of terror, which seems to have happened in Bangladesh as well. The attack on foreigners, in a modus operandi that is distinctly different from the isolated knifings and bombings that Bangladesh has seen previously, places the Dhaka siege in the same league as the terror attacks in many world capitals.

Yet, the Bangladesh government seems unwilling to acknowledge that terror in Bangladesh has come of age. To continue to pin the blame on local groups may assuage its sense of guilt, but it does nothing to help its counter-terrorism effort, which has been plagued with innumerable shortcomings. For one, its ineffectuality, which is also the result of its world view. In spite of the growing incidence of attacks - on liberal intellectuals and members of minority groups - the government has not been able to move decisively against terror operatives. It has continued to blame the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its affiliation with the radical Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami for all that has been plaguing the nation, and has ended up politicizing the counter-terror operation. The fact that the Hasina government finds it unnecessary to detach itself from the same logic while looking at the bakery siege shows that the same attitude might continue and thus stymie Bangladesh's fight against terror.

For India, it is essential that Bangladesh succeeds in this fight. It would find its peace threatened if, like Pakistan to its west, Bangladesh were to become a sanctuary for terror groups using its terrain to direct operations against India. Working in tandem after years, both India and Bangladesh have managed to act against some such groups. This cooperation can persist in countering groups that align themselves with either al Qaida or the ISIS, both transnational groups that require transnational operations to disable them. But Bangladesh has to realize that terror today is no longer the localized phenomenon it wishes it to be. And it is not just political rivals or a clutch of misguided religionists with a grudge against the government who are to blame for it.