Bangladesh: A Need to Rediscover the Secular Forces
Some scholars and geopolitical analysts feel that the epicentre of the concept and practice of Islamist jihad has shifted from Pakistan to Bangladesh. It has emerged as a critical breeding ground of Islamist jihad. Mushrooming of jihadist tanzeems between 1980 and 2005 apparently supports these allegations. Escalation of violence aimed at overthrowing the constitutional democracy and establishing a pure Islamic state, ruled by Sharia’a and Hadith buttress such tentative conclusions. However, the schools equating Bangladesh with Pakistan as a jihadist country tend to ignore the existence of a historically strong strand of secularism amongst the Bengali Muslims.
In fact, from the early days of Bengal’s tryst with Islam (13th century), the trends of secularism and Islamic fundamentalism coexisted. Islam was brought to Bengal by the Turkic fortune hunters, Pathan buccaneers and Mughal expansionists.
In their wake, they had brought different schools of Sufi, Ahl-e-Kitab and liberal Islamic tenets of Persian vintage. These diverse aspects had determined the attitude of the immigrant Muslims, mostly upper caste Ajlafs, indigenous converts, mostly Ajlafs and Arzal, lowest in the ladder of Muslim social milieu. Before we dissect the jihadist anatomy of Bangladesh, these aspects require deep examination.
From the fateful day in 1204, when Muhammad Bakhtiyar and his 10,000 horsemen conquered major parts of Bengal to Siraj-ud-Daula’s rout at Plassey in 1757 jihadist paradigm amongst Bengali Muslims have passed through phases of waxing and waning. A queer admixture of factors-religious, social and economic, had determined the edges of relationship between the Hindu and Muslim communities. When the Turks conquered Bengal, Bakhtiyar and Iltutmish did not seek legitimacy within the framework of Hindu Sena dynasty. The new rulers communicated messages of brute force. They destroyed temples and Viharas and constructed mosques and minars, like the famous minar at Pandua, southern Bengal. Surrounded by Turkic and Pathan followers they scarcely appointed Hindu courtiers and retainers. Sufis of the Chisti, Firdausi, Suhrawardi and Nakshbandi schools, who marched behind the conquerors, matched the royal might, by infiltrating the interior areas with horsemen, infantry and naval flotilla supplied by the royal courts. They carried the message of strident Islam, often admixtures of Persian liberal schools, Central Asian Sufi tariqas and Saudi Salafist Puritanism. The Kitab and Sword marched together. While the Ashrafs were concentrated in the urban pockets the Ajlafs and Arzals, mostly converted from low caste Hindus, dominated the rural areas. This segment of Bengali Muslims nursed the assimilistic seeds and kernels of secular approaches, which later flourished with the emergence of the modern middle and working classes.
Revolt and capture of power by Raja Ganesh (1400-1421) had witnessed a Hindu backlash. However, he realised the pressure of rising Islam in India. As a compromise, he allowed his son to embrace Islam and rule over a coalition of Turks and Bengalis by assuming the name of Jalal al-Din Muhammad. This period had seen some synthesis of Hindu and Muslim Bengalis and Turks, though Hindu resistance often surfaced like successful rebellion by Raja Danuja Mardana Deva and his son Mahendra Deva (1417-1418). Raja Ganesh promoted Hindu symbolism and inducted Bengali Hindus inside the power structure of the state. His son Jalal al-Din pursued the policy of synthesisation that helped emergence of a class of secular Muslims, who believed in political, economic and religious tolerance. Even the royal authority was indigenised and Bengal Muslims had started cutting strings of attachment to Delhi sultanate and ties to central Asian Turks. The process of synthesisation had peaked during the period of Husain Shah (1519-23).
This trend did not go unchallenged by the “true adherents” to Islam. The Sufi pious warriors like Jajal al-Din Tabrizi (1228) had converted Hindus to Islam often at the point of swords. The Sufi Pirs often talked about synthesisation as a tactical approach to accommodate some Hindu practices as the lower caste Hindus were not conversant with the illuminated tenets of Islam and Hinduism. One landmark example of such synthesisation was the adoption of tantrik yoga by some Sufi schools as propounded by the Amritakunda, a Brahminic yogic treatise of Ahom origin.
Notwithstanding such isolated instances of collaboration and synthesisation, scholars acknowledged that mass conversion of Hindus had taken place probably under mixed circumstances: migration from Central Asia (insignificant), spreading religion through sword, concession of patronage, and the concept of social liberation in which the out-caste Hindus had found a religion based on equality. This process achieved considerable progress even before the Mughals had occupied Bengal. Bengali Ashraf Muslims do not accept the theory of conversion of low caste Hindus, described as Ajlaf. However, historical evidences speak loudly that sword had played a greater role than the factors of social dynamics. In spite of mass conversion certain assimilistic cultural, linguistic and societal convergence pushed up emergence of a strong secular strand of Islam in Bengal, which was not eroded fully even after British occupation, advent of Islamic revivalism and rise of Hindu nationalism amongst the English educated urban Hindus and their rural cousins.
The post-British land management system, emergence of Hindu landlords, introduction of English education had brought the Hindus closer to the ruling powers. The Muslims, hitherto considered as the First nation of India was relegated almost to the Third Nation status as the Hindus edged past them and pretended to be the Second Nation, by virtue of their modern education and confidence they enjoyed of the new masters.
The Bengali Muslim Ashraf (sharif) mostly dwelling in urban areas felt the need for modernisation and gradually drifted to English education though the community as such insisted on retaining Arabic, Persian and Urdu. The Ajlaf and the Arzal spoke Bengali like their Hindu compatriots. Cultivation of Bengali by the Hindus had mothered several literary works leading to growth of national consciousness. Muslims were discouraged particularly by the Mughal nobility from adopting Bengali, though there are evidences to suggest that a good number of Pathan chiefs had encouraged the assimilation process and encouraged Bengali literature. This trend had finally lead to the growth of urban and rural middle class, working classes and professionals amongst the Muslims, who championed Muslim causes but did not abhor secular coexistence with the Hindus. Though Hindu and Muslim nationalism sprouted out of the same seed, they took different directions under the leadership of urban Bengali bhadraloks and Muslim Ashrafs.
Contact with the British also generated a revivalist trend amongst the Bengali Muslims. The advent of Wahhabism and associated tanzeems like Faraizi, Ahl-e-Hadith, the Muhammadi, Hanafi and La-Mazhabi etc had strengthened revivalism. These movements had touched the very roots of Bengali Muslim society. The fanatics even excommunicated the Muslims who sent children to English schools. The Pioneer of February 23,1878 had commented “…there is the active opposition of a large section of Mussalman community which still considers the study of English little less than heresy, and its Mussalman promoters little better than perverts.”
Gradual rise of the Bengali Hindu middle class, spread of education, and advent of the age of renaissance had witnessed slow emergence of the Muslim middle class who dwelt in between the Ajlaf and Ashraf. The Ashrafs mainly lived in the cities and pioneered the cause of retaining Arabic, Persian and Urdu and the Ajlaf and the class in between gradually started taking to English education. This emerging middle class was divided into two distinct categories. The secular section preferred to sail and compete with the Hindus and the ‘religious’ sections preferred curving out separate identities preached by Shah Wali Ullah, Sir Syed Ahmed, the Wahhabis, Deobandis and Barelvis. The later sections were encouraged by city dwelling Ashraf and mixed products of Ajlaf and Ashraf social combination to develop a distinct Muslim nationalist identity for the Muslims of Bengal and rest of India. To this was added the growing grievances of the Muslim military classes that had once dominated Bengal’s power structure.
Post 1857 social upheaval amongst the Hindus, flourishing of Bengali literature including the writings of Bankim Chandra’s Ananda Math had stirred the Hindus and antagonised the Muslims. Most of the landmark works including Tagore’s Katha O Kahini were interpreted by the Bengali Muslims as direct attack against their community. The exclusive Hindu Mela of 1867 and subsequent Hindu nationalist stirring had given rise to a parallel Muslim nationalist outgrowth. Between 1870 and 1900, the Muslim elite brought out papers like Mohammadi Akhbar, Mussalman, Mussalman Bandhu, Islam, Islam-Pracharak, Kohinoor and Nur-al-Ima. This parallel development represented tangential growth of Hindu and Muslim nationalism, which often took shape of ugly communal outburst. Clash of socio-political and economic interests often stymied the growth of linguistic, cultural and ethnic nationalism and secularism. Both Hindu and Muslim leadership were responsible for aggravating the fault line.
However, Mohammad Yakub Ali Choudhury of Kohinoor asserted in 1915 “…that Bengali was the matribhasa of Bengali Muslims was as true as sunlight …and instead of trying to make this language Mussalmani, it would be hundred times better to make efforts to establish Mussalmani life and spirit in the realm of Bengali literature.” This assertion had strengthened linguistic nationalism of the Bengali Muslims, which had always maintained distance from Muslim nationalism propagated by the Nawab Salimullah of Dacca and other Arabic-Persian-Urdu speaking Muslim nobility. Out of this trend had emerged the later-day secular leaders like Fazlul Haq and Mohammad Akram Kahn. However, views of the Dacca and Aligarh schools were strongly reflected by Muslim managed journals like Masik Mohammadi and Saptahik Mohammadi. Hindu managed journals like Modern Review, Prabashi and Sanibarer Chithi were treated as adversaries of Muslim aspirations.
This trend of parallel evolution of Bengali Hindu and Muslim nationalism had culminated in the partition of Bengal on October 16, 1905, promulgation of communal award. Capture of political power by the Muslim League/Krishak Praja Party had strengthened the trends of Muslim separatism. At a later stage, Shahid Suhrawardy and Fazlul Haq etc leaders had tried to promote Hindu-Muslim unity and sharing political power. Their efforts were nullified by Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s uncompromising attitude and chronic intransigence of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress, both of which basically represented the Hindu bhadraloks, the urban face of the society as against the rural faces represented by the breakaway Congress Forward Block, Communist Party and the Nationalist Revolutionaries.
In East Pakistan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his colleagues spearheaded this trend of Muslim and Bengali linguistic nationalism. Present day Bangladesh also presents two distinct faces of Bengali nationalism: secular, linguistic and cultural nationalism as represented by Awami League and 13 party combination and Islamic identity of the Bengali speaking Muslims as represented by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies. The other extreme is represented by the Islamist jiahdists, represented by forces of branded Wahhabists, Ahl-e-Hadit followers, Jamait-e-Islami and various other tanzeems patronised by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.
Therefore, when we speak of jihadist movement in Bangladesh we should also keep in mind that the secular forces amongst the Bengali speaking Muslims are very strong on the ground and linguistic and cultural nationalism of the Bengali speaking Muslims have not at all eclipsed. India, Bangladesh’s powerful neighbour and the secular democratic forces all around the world should support the secular forces and encourage the ruling parties to combat Islamist jihadi tanzeems ruthlessly. Bangladesh cannot be allowed to emerge as another Talibanised country.
The freedom struggle had not transformed all Bengali Muslims to secularists. The staunch Muslim Leaguers, Jamait-e-Islami Pakistan and other fundamentalist tanzeems had collaborated with Pakistan. Even the seats of the Sufi pirs at Sylhet, Monair Char and Maijh Bhandar had supported the military rulers. The rural Bengali Muslims were led by the middle class professionals, intellectuals and secularists to come under the umbrella of Awami League of Mujibur Rahman. No systematic study was made to understand the dynamics of rural Bengali Muslims taking overwhelming initiative in the liberation struggle. They responded like they once stood in solid phalanx behind Fazlul Haq’s KPP against Jinnah’s Muslim League.
However, the pro-Pakistani and Islamist elements were strengthened and they resurfaced after Mujibur Rahman was assassinated and military rule imposed. Anti-India proclivities of Islamicised Bangladeshi nationals were fortified by the remergence of Jamait-e-Islami, its student wing-Islamic Chhatra Shibir, Ahl-e-Hadith Movement Bangladesh and Al Badr. The process of Islamisation was enhanced by keenness of the military dictators to put a paint of Islamic character on the nation with a view to thwart the secular elements, which spearheaded the freedom movement. To this was added the developments in Iran, Afghanistan and virtual recognition by the USA and China that Islamist Jihad was the correct weapon to achieve regional and strategic political gaols. The DGFI, ISI and the CIA mobilised recruitment of jihadis from Bangladesh for fighting in Afghan jihad. Over 10,000 Bangladeshis were trained by the ISI, Al Qaeda and Afghani tanzeems. Some of them fought in Bosnia, Chechnya, Uzbekistan and even in Southern Thailand and the Philippines. Over 7000 Afghan veterans returned to Bangladesh and another 2000 after US attack on Afghanistan. Bangladesh’s political space was not available to these jihadis. They fanned out to the rural areas, took cover of the JeI, HUJI, Ahl-e-Hadith, Al Hiqma and Hijbut Tehrir etc tanzeems and continued to receive flourishing financial support from the ISI, General Intelligence Department of Royal Saudi Intelligence and numerous Saudi, Kuwaiti, Bahraini NGOs. Between 1980 and 2005, these groups established over 1000 madrasas and 1500 mosques in rural areas and exploited the utter impoverished condition of the rural masses. The unemployed urban youths were also attracted, as the jihadists were able of offer cash incentive to them for undertaking jihadist actions. Competitive fundamentalism of the Awami League and BNP also allowed political niche to the pro-jihadist elements. The hated Jamait-e-Islami had overnight become a political bed partner.
The other aspect that had facilitated deeper rooting of the Islamist jihadist groups was their exploitation by the DGFI, NSI and the ISI for facilitating training, safe-accommodation and arms supply to the Indian insurgent groups like the ULFA, UNLF, NSCN (IM), Bodo rebel groups and NLFT etc. These tanzeems were also encouraged to operate in Chittagong Hill Tracts to fight against the Chakma Shanti Vahini in collaboration with the Rohingya rebels of Arakan and BDR and RAB. Some of these tanzeems collaborated with ISI trained Pakistani terrorists transiting to India through Bangladesh. Gradually they were encouraged by the Pakistani tanzeems and the ISI/DGFI to open terrorist modules in the Indian states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Coordination and execution of Pakistan’s scheme to replant Islamic jihad in Bangladesh was also aided by a section of Pakistan trained army officers and the Directorate General Forces Intelligence (DGFI) establish by General Zia-ur-Rahman. An officer of the rank of Brigadier of Bangladesh army maintains liaison with the Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous and Joint Intelligence X of the ISI. Besides the DGFI, the JIM/JIX have powerful fundamentalist collaborators in Bangladesh in the Jamait-e-Islami (political ally of the BNP), Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS), Islamic Oikyo Jote (third important political force), Al Badr, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and Al Qaeda affiliated Al Jihad. The latest incarnation of Islamist forces in Bangladesh are headed by Bangla Bhai (brother of Bengalis), Jagrata Muslim Janata (awakened Muslim people), Ahl-e-Hadith and Jamait-ul- Mujahideen.
Main Muslim militant and jihadist groups in Bangladesh are:
1. Jamait-e-Islami (JeI) - A religious-political party originally floated by Maulana Maudoodi. It dates back to the British colonial era, and the (East) Pakistan period (1947-1971). It supported Pakistan against Bengali freedom struggle, and most of its leaders fled to Pakistan after Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. The JeI collaborated with Pakistan army and was responsible for large-scale killing of pro-liberation Bengali Muslims and Hindus. In December 2000, Motiur Nizami Rahman, a former pro-Pakistani militant, assumed leadership. In the October 2001 election, JeI emerged as the third largest party, with 17 seats in the parliament and two ministers in the new coalition government. JeI’s wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
2. Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS) -Jamait’s youth organisation. Set up in 1941 at the prompting of the JeI and the Muslim League, it became a member of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organisations (IIFSO) in 1979. The ICS is also a member of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and has close contacts with other radical Muslim youth groups in Pakistan, the Middle East, Malaysia and Indonesia. ICS has known links with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which has often been involved in terrorist activities. One of its main strongholds in Bangladesh is at the university in Chittagong and it dominates privately run madrasas all over the country. It has been implicated in a number of bombings and politically motivated assassinations and killing of minorities. Nurul Islam Bulbul is its current president and Mohammed Nazrul Islam is the secretary general. The ICS has 8 territorial divisions and 230 subdivisions. Several ICS members were taken to Pakistan for militant training at Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Laskar-e-Tayeba camps. Some of them fought in Afghan jihad.
The JeI (BD) and ICS maintain close liaison with JeI units in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar and the ICS also maintain regular contacts with the SIMI units and other Islamist tanzeems operating in the bordering areas of these states. There exists an unbroken chain of Islamist linkage between these fundamentalist outfits of Bangladesh and India.
3. Islami Oikyo Jote (IOJ) – The party was floated by certain pro-Pakistani maulanas, after General Ershad seized power through a military coup. Ershad promoted jihadi groups to consolidate his political base. The IOJ had joined the BNP government headed by Begum Zia after 2001 election under leadership of Mufti Amini. This party had given a slogan: Amra sobai Taliban, Bangla hove Afghanistan (we all are Taliban, Bangla will be Afghanistan). The IOJ is considered a legitimate voice within Bangladeshi politics. The Mon.’s chairman, Mufti Fazlul Hague Amine, who has served as a Member of Parliament for the past three years, says he believes that secular law had failed Bangladesh and that it was time to implement Shari, the legal code of Islam.
4. Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) –It is Bangladesh’s main militant outfit. The HUJI has active units in India and Pakistan and the three outfits often work in tandem. Set up in 1992 at the instance of Osama bin Laden, it has an estimated strength of 25,000 and is headed by Shawkat Osman aka Maulana or Sheikh Farid of Chittagong. Its members are recruited mainly from madrasa students and unemployed youths. They describe themselves as ‘Bangladeshi Taliban’. The group is believed to have extensive contacts with Muslim groups in the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. The HUJI is known to have steady links with Pakistan based jihadist outfits like Harkat-ul-Ansar (Mujahideen), Jais-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayeba. Western sources have attributed steady links between the HUJI and Al Qaeda. The HUJI (BD) has over 60 sub-units in Bangladesh and it operates over 300 madrasas and controls over 250 mosques. Cadres churned out by the HUJI are also imparted arms training in jungle camps. Bangladesh intelligence is aware that the HUJI has a considerable arms holding, which are often supplied from Pakistan through sea route and Nepal. HUJI jihadists had taken part in Afghan jihad and jihad sponsored by the ISI and Al Qaeda in the South East Asian countries, Bosnia, Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Kosovo.
5. The Jihad Movement of Bangladesh- Osama bin Laden’s February 23, 1998 fatwa urging jihad against the USA and Israel was co-signed by two Egyptian clerics, one Pakistani, and Fazlul Rahman, “leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh”. The JMB is not a separate organisation. It represents a common name for several Islamic groups in Bangladesh, of which HUJI is the biggest and most important. Later the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh branched out of this body.
As the JeI leader Fazlul Rahman had opposed freedom struggle, organised Ansar forces to assassinate Bengali Muslims and Hindus. He is a political ally of the BNP.
Al Qaeda supports Jihad Movement and other similar outfits. Liberal funds are received from Al Qaeda and other Arab sources. These funds are used for churning out jihadis. “According to Gowher Rizvi, director of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard and a lecturer in public policy, bin Laden’s reputed donation is ”a pittance” compared with the millions that Saudi charities have contributed to many of Bangladesh’s estimated 64,000 madrassas, most of which serve only a single village or two. Money of this kind is especially important because Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world.” Eliza Griswold, NYT Magazine. 23.01.05
6. Jagrato Muslim Janata (JMJ)-It is a recently formed front of the JeI that indulges in killing and assassination of secular and suspected Marxist-Leninist activists (Purva Bangla Sarbohara Party). Active in northern districts of Bangladesh, bordering India, the movement is also known as ‘Bangla Bhai’-Bengali Brotherhood.
Another face of this movement is Jamait-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. This outfit is supported by Pakistani Islamist tanzeems like Jais-e-Mohammad and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. They try to cruelly enforce Sharia rules and social customs like their Taliban counterparts. The JMJ enjoys the backing of the BNP led coalition government and Jamait-e-Islami and has spread its tentacles in the bordering areas inside India. Under international pressure, especially from EU and the USA some hesitant actions have been initiated by the BNP led pro-Pakistani coalition government.
Bangla Bhai’ volunteers collect regular ‘jihad zaqat’ from the devotees who congregate at their area mosques. Estimated annual collection is Taka 800 million. This movement is known to train large number of Bengali Muslims in jihadist activities. Selimullah, one of the leaders of the outfit based across Bangladesh’s eastern border in Myanmar, was arrested in Chittagong early in 2001. He admitted in court that more than 500 jihadists had been training under him. On his computer, intelligence sources found photographs to be sent to donors showing Islamic soldiers at rest and at attention position, armed with AK-47’s and wearing shiny new boots. Selimullah said that his group received weapons from supporters in Libya and Saudi Arabia, among others.
7. Shahadat-i-Alam-al-Hiqma- this organisation was floated by Syed Kawsar Hussain on December 29, 1996 after he returned from a prolonged training visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Initially he ran his outfit as Freedom Party. He claims that Hiqma party is affiliated to World Islamic Front. Al Hiqma is active in the western districts of Bangladesh and its operation often spills over to West Bengal. Bangladesh government had banned this organisation in 2000.
8. Tablighi Jammat is the main proselytizing arm of the Islamic movement. Bangladesh has a tradition of holding annual Vishwa Ijtema (world congregation) of the TJ at Tungi near Dhaka. Over three to five million Muslims attend the Ijtema from South East Asia, Pakistan, Middle East, Central Asian Muslim republics and the countries of Africa, Europe and Americas. The annual TJ fair has, over years, added to the religious fervour of the Bengali Muslims converting Bangladesh as the experimental ground for the Rabita-al-Alam-al-Islami and other pan-Islamist organisations to implement the strictest form of Islam as prescribed by the Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh unit of the TJ is suspected to have close liaison with the Saudi intelligence and the ISI.
9. Ahl-e-Hadis (Hadith) Bangladesh—Bangladesh unit of the Islamist organisation has two factions; one headed by Prof. Mohammad Rejaul Karim. He rose through the ranks of ICS and was affiliated to JeI BD. However, he has managed to link up with the Ahl-e-Hadith Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Indian unit at Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. His group has about 16 branches in Bangladesh. It is known to have links with HUJI.
Dr. Abdullah Ghalib heads the other group. These two warring factions keep on indulging in turf war, killing each other’s cadres. Ahl-e-Hadis BD is known to have organised violent actions against the minority Hindu and Buddhist communities. Ahl-e-Hadis BD manages about 200 madrasas in the country, which receive lavish donation from Arab countries.
The main figure behind Bangla Bhai, Jagrata Muslim Janata and Jammat-ul Mujahideen is Shaikh Abdul Rahman of Jamalpur. Son of Abdullah Ibn Fazal, he has deep links with Wahhabi sects Saudi Arabia, Libya, Pakistan and other Arab nations. His father was also in constant touch with them even before Bangladesh was created. He was detained as a war criminal for being responsible for killing innumerable freedom fighters. Fazal had founded the Ahl-e-Hadis in Bangladesh at the behest of Saudi and Pakistan. Abdul Rahman had studied in Al Medina University of Saudi Arabia and from there had gone over to Pakistan where he was trained by the ISI at Muridke and later he fought in Afghan jihad. He was financially supported by Saudi Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (Kuwait) and Al Haramain Islamic Foundation. Returning to Dhaka he served in the Saudi embassy and gradually built up a pro-Saudi and Pakistani network of terrorist organisations with a view to bring in Islamic changes through jihad. According to Daily Ajker Kagoj of Dhaka, there are about 1000 jihadists in the organisations well trained in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Lebanon.
Shaikh Abdur Rahman was arrested by RAB force of Bangladesh on March 2, 2006 after he had succeeded in a spate of serial bombings and assassination of judges.
The BNP government has finally yielded under EU, USA and other Donor Country pressures to curb activities of the Islamist jihadist organisations. It has banned Ahl-e-Hadis, Bangla Bhai, and Jgrata Muslim Janata. Dr. Abdullah Ghalib was taken into custody. It has also banned the Jammat-ul-Mujahideen and has expressed intent to isolate over 150.000 volunteers of the JUM spread over 40 districts. This is a pious wish, which no one inside Bangladesh believe. The BNP’s vote bank is mainly derived from pro-Pakistani segment of the society and the masses controlled by the jihadists and Islamist organisations.
The hardcore militant organisations are patronised by Pakistan based jihadist tanzeems, which depute religious experts to train and motivate the Bengali jihadists. The Awami League and other secular political forces acknowledge that the ISI and Al Qaeda and its affiliates in the Arab world fund the HUJI, ICS and JMJ tanzeems. A few chosen volunteers were recruited to undergo training in ISI camps at Peshawar and Khost to fight alongside the Afghan mujahideens. A few of them were motivated to infiltrate into India and indulge in jihadist activities in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and as far as in Delhi and Mumbai. At times, these jihadists were manipulated by the ISI from its bases in Thailand, Malaysia and Kathmandu.
Pakistani jihadist tanzeems have several strategic reasons to use Bangladesh as a base for anti-India operations. Bangladesh had been a part of Pakistan and a sizeable section of the people share the core of Pakistan ideology and a homogenous home for Muslims of the subcontinent. Despite Bangladesh’s free status Pakistan encourages the jihadist tanzeems to struggle for establishment of North East Pakistan comprising whole of Bengal, minus parts of Burdwan Division and Assam. Pakistan is also activating the Bangladeshi tanzeems to join up with Pakistani tanzeems to struggle for establishment of Hyderistan in South India.
In recent years, Pakistan’s proxy war against India has come under US surveillance. US intelligence teams operating within post-9/11 Pakistan are exercising scrutiny and surveillance on Pakistan’s Islamic jihadist organizations and their linkages with the ISI. India’s extensive border fencing along the international border and Line of Control is significantly impeding cross-border terrorism and proxy war activities of Pakistan. The Islamist jihadists of Pakistan are facilitated by the ISI to operate through Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh offers Pakistan an attractive alternative base for continuing its proxy war against India, especially under the current political dispensations in both countries. Rapid Islamisation of Bangladesh, vast spread of fundamentalist groups and sprouting of innumerable madrasas has coupled with abject poverty and deprivation to push the Bangladeshi Muslims to the path of jihad.
However, post-9/11 Pakistan’s strategy of exploiting Bangladesh as an alternative base for proxy war has been recognised by the international community after reports of Al Qaeda presence in the country and series of terrorist attacks against ‘secular targets’, especially the bomb attack on the British High Commissioner at Sylhet.
Bangladesh’ politico-religious factors provide a force-multiplier effect in terms of Bangladesh’s utility as an alternative base for Pakistan’s proxy war. Bangladesh’s Armed Forces are increasingly coming under Islamic fundamentalist influences. They seem to perceive that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is a better weapon to keep India’s might at bay. Bangladesh already provides safe havens and gunrunning facilities for many anti-Indian insurgent groups of India’s North East. Pakistan’s proxy war activities and ISI operations can be safely camouflaged under the umbrella of such organizations. Political fixations of the present government, in terms of its policies towards India and Pakistan, make it easy for Pakistan to exploit Bangladesh as a proxy war base against India.
The Pakistani Establishment is aware that the ‘secular’ Bengali elements and forces, which championed the ethnolinguist movement against Punjabi exploitation, will not allow them to reoccupy the country physically. However, taking advantage of the religious resurgence, preponderance of jihadist philosophy in major segments of the Muslim Ummah and Pakistan’s emergence as the frontline jihad exporting country Islamabad has transferred the epicentre of jihad to its former eastern wing. This neo-occupation of Bangladesh by Pakistan, as it did in Afghanistan during Taliban days, has offered it a springboard for revamping its campaign against India and in advancing its tongues of jihad to the South East Asian countries.
Bangladeshi fundamentalist tanzeems have not lagged behind their Pakistani promoters. Hundreds of ‘Quami Madrasas’ have begun springing up along the entire stretch of the India-Bangladesh border (2,400 km). These ‘Quami Madrasas’ under the guise of religious instruction schools provide a network for Islamic jihad and ISI’s proxy war against India. Reports indicate that the maulvis (religious teachers) are mostly trained in Pakistan and they are firm believers in staunch Salafist Wahhabi and Deobandi teachings, though most of the Bengali Muslims are Hanafis and they practice some kind of Sufism.
Al Qaeda linkages with Bangladesh are pre-9/11. Reports of Al Qaeda operatives’ flight to Bangladesh after US invasion of Afghanistan have been confirmed. Arrival of a large Al-Qaeda group at Chittagong in December 2000 was confirmed by western sources. Ajker Kagoj, a Bangladeshi newspaper quoted an unnamed foreign embassy in Dhaka as saying that Osama bin Laden’s friend Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been hiding out in the country for months after arriving in Chittagong, before he transited to Indonesia.
Bangladesh security sources have confirmed that the Jagrata Muslim Janata has confirmed linkages to al Qaeda. These incidents tend to prove that Bangladesh is on the verge of becoming a free playground of the Islamist jihadist forces, which are bent upon destabilising the country by escalating hostile activities against India and the western countries. It is not that the epicentre of Islamist jihad is being transferred to Bangladesh from Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is a new centre, which is likely to play serious and dangerous roles in promoting instability in India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia etc countries.
It is time to remember that Bangladesh is not a brand jihadist country. It has a strong and deep-rooted secular character. India and other secular democracies have to work hard to strengthen these elements, help alleviation of rural poverty, spread modern secular education and strengthen the middle and working classes along with strengthening its essence of linguistic, cultural and ethnic nationalism based on ideologies cherished by Fazlul Haq, Mujibur Rahman and numerous other secular leaders. Implantation of another Wahhabist jihad mongering Talibanised Bangladesh in this part of South Asia can infect not only India but also the entire South East Asia. Presence of Al Qaeda in Bangladesh poses ominous portends.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
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June 8th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I very realistic study by Dhar. My Sonar Bangla gas become a play ground for the Pakistani, Arab and Yemeni, Omani etc jihadists. Jamait Islami has hijacked our democracy. The army is Jamait dominated. We require another War of Liberation.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I appreciate the author for being frank. The Bengalis have a long tradition of being secular. maximum merging of cultural contours had taken place before the Mullas destrpyed it. It is secularism that had brought Bangladesh. We are still active desite Jamait Islami activities to the contrary. We would protect the secular spirit.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I do not agree that secular spirit in Bangla has been destroyed. It has suffered in the hands of Army, Jihadis and Jamait. Pakistan and Arab money are destroying our Bangali unity. But we would defeat them.