Sticking the terrorism label on Bangladesh
Enayet Rasul Bhuiyan | Thursday, 26 February 2009
The last time that Bangladesh was rocked by terrorism was in 2006. Bombs were detonated in most of the country's 64 districts all on one day in that period that signaled the existence of a widespread network of an Islamist terrorist network. But the notable thing after these countrywide bomb blasts was the swift, relentless and decisive crackdown of the then government against the clandestine organization.
The bombers were swiftly identified, most of the senior leaders or commanders of the underground organization were traced out in their hideouts and taken into custody, huge quantities of the explosive making and publicity materials were seized and even the financial transactions of the terror markers were also interrupted. What followed was even more effective. The top arrested leaders of the terrorist organization, JMB, Bangladesh, were swiftly put under trial and the process was completed fast that led to the hanging of nearly all of them in record time.
Thus, the JMB was considered as all but put out of operation. With its top operation managers hanged and the remnant lesser activists down the line on the run from the relentless drive of the security forces against them, it seemed that the spine of the JMB was broken and that it would never find again the motivation to revive and reorganize. But last Friday's incidents at Gazipur should create the ground for a rethink about their abilities and determination . There one of the handcuffed members of a group of JMB men, threw himself on a grenade laid in front of a table for exhibit and could set it off that led to the injuries of 12 persons and some were injured very seriously. Later, the media reported the arrest of a person with position as military commander of the JMB in the Dhaka region. The other arrested JMB members included even females that suggested that the terrorist organization was turning non conventional in its tactics.
Apparently, therefore, the latest bloody incident at Gazipur and developments in its trail, seem to suggest that the JMB has regrouped and reorganized formidably like in the past. That may be a view worthy of consideration. For no great efforts were probably made under the caretaker authorities against the JMB from a complacent feeling perhaps that the organization was too weakened. But reports in the media during that period did suggest that JMB was trying to recover and regain.
However, the thing to note is the timing of the finding out of the resurgence of the JMB recently. Violent incidents linked to the JMB were hardly noted in the period under the caretaker government. Even if they had reorganized, they were keeping quiet. Why then, the underground organization is becoming the centre of attention or so active so soon after the takeover by the new government ?
Curiously, the terrorist outfit is coming under the limelight afresh and this development is coinciding with a clamour that has started internationally that Islamist terrorism is dangerously on the increase in Bangladesh. Only about a fortnight ago, reports were spotted in the press to the effect that Pakistani authorities have prepared a report to be handed over to their Indian counterparts that alleged that the perpetrators of the recent Mumbai attacks , did most of their planning and practicing in Bangladesh. The question aside whether it was part of a plan to shake-off responsibility for the Mumbai carnage by Pakistan , it was clearly a move to refocus Bangladesh as a seriously terrorism afflicted country. Recent high level government figures who visited Bangladesh recently from India and the US, were also known to have discussed with much stress their concern about growing terrorism in Bangladesh.
From all these and more, one may not be blamed for too much speculation while thinking whether there is some masterminding--somewhere--outside Bangladesh to create situations that would justify the international labeling of Bangladesh as a country of terrorists. If this description as a gradually failing state can be successfully hoisted and maintained against this country , then many veiled objectives can be fulfilled by these quarters from paving the way for international intervention in this country for combating terrorism to suppressing its emerging economy from lack of investments to make it dependent on foreign goods. The secretary general of the BNP has harkened about such possibilities. His remarks may have been politically tinged . But his observations cannot be dismissed off entirely as too flippant. Therefore, government needs to monitor everything proactively--inside and outside the country--to ascertain whether such a planned move is at all there or not and if it is there, to counter it very effectively. For there are inherent dangers in allowing this image of Bangladesh to stabilize in the international conception that Bangladesh is a terrorism infested country. Foreign investments, already plunging, will decline further if the campaign to make out Bangladesh as a very troubled country by terrorism, is allowed to progress smoothly. Not only the economy of the country would be hurt, its sovereignty at one point may stand threatened with international or foreign demands made on it to allow its territories to be visited by foreign forces to fight terrorism on the excuse that Bangladesh has not been doing a good job in this area.
The doables before the government ought to be very clear. Sporadic actions against the JMB and similar organizations will not be enough. Investigations were conducted under previous governments to know who their real backers were. It could not be that such well organized agents of terror could be spontaneously formed by their own sheer will. From the nature of their operations, it was evident that they could draw on the guidance, resources and support of external as well as internal quarters behind the wings. The present government should learn and get clues from the investigation of its predecessors, evaluate them and engage in fresh investigations of its own to get at the roots or sources of the terror. The best anti-terrorism results can be only obtained from pinpointing the big backers and delinking them from the terror networks. The backers will have to be targeted for arrest and all forms of punitive actions as would be possible. Foreign governments and international organizations may have to be appealed to for getting their zestful cooperation in taking actions against these big backers of terror in Bangladesh.
The government in Bangladesh should also launch psychological warfare against the extremists. The imams of mosques should be urged to tell their audiences in every congregation that terrorism of the JMB variety has no sanction in Islam and how the same constitutes cardinal sins. Regular publicities in the mass media should make people conscious about the modus operandi of the terror networks so that people would not shelter them, recognize them easily and tell the security agencies about their whereabouts. In sum, a main plank of the government strategy ought to be one of isolating them from the mainstream population making their detection and arrests easier. People should come round to understanding well from these publicities how the rearing of terrorism can have very shattering effects on the country's normal life and living and its economy in the mid and long terms.
And of course, the bottom line is that it is only high quality intelligence and law enforcement activities that can help Bangladesh in the rehabilitation of its image as one not burdened by terrorism.
The bombers were swiftly identified, most of the senior leaders or commanders of the underground organization were traced out in their hideouts and taken into custody, huge quantities of the explosive making and publicity materials were seized and even the financial transactions of the terror markers were also interrupted. What followed was even more effective. The top arrested leaders of the terrorist organization, JMB, Bangladesh, were swiftly put under trial and the process was completed fast that led to the hanging of nearly all of them in record time.
Thus, the JMB was considered as all but put out of operation. With its top operation managers hanged and the remnant lesser activists down the line on the run from the relentless drive of the security forces against them, it seemed that the spine of the JMB was broken and that it would never find again the motivation to revive and reorganize. But last Friday's incidents at Gazipur should create the ground for a rethink about their abilities and determination . There one of the handcuffed members of a group of JMB men, threw himself on a grenade laid in front of a table for exhibit and could set it off that led to the injuries of 12 persons and some were injured very seriously. Later, the media reported the arrest of a person with position as military commander of the JMB in the Dhaka region. The other arrested JMB members included even females that suggested that the terrorist organization was turning non conventional in its tactics.
Apparently, therefore, the latest bloody incident at Gazipur and developments in its trail, seem to suggest that the JMB has regrouped and reorganized formidably like in the past. That may be a view worthy of consideration. For no great efforts were probably made under the caretaker authorities against the JMB from a complacent feeling perhaps that the organization was too weakened. But reports in the media during that period did suggest that JMB was trying to recover and regain.
However, the thing to note is the timing of the finding out of the resurgence of the JMB recently. Violent incidents linked to the JMB were hardly noted in the period under the caretaker government. Even if they had reorganized, they were keeping quiet. Why then, the underground organization is becoming the centre of attention or so active so soon after the takeover by the new government ?
Curiously, the terrorist outfit is coming under the limelight afresh and this development is coinciding with a clamour that has started internationally that Islamist terrorism is dangerously on the increase in Bangladesh. Only about a fortnight ago, reports were spotted in the press to the effect that Pakistani authorities have prepared a report to be handed over to their Indian counterparts that alleged that the perpetrators of the recent Mumbai attacks , did most of their planning and practicing in Bangladesh. The question aside whether it was part of a plan to shake-off responsibility for the Mumbai carnage by Pakistan , it was clearly a move to refocus Bangladesh as a seriously terrorism afflicted country. Recent high level government figures who visited Bangladesh recently from India and the US, were also known to have discussed with much stress their concern about growing terrorism in Bangladesh.
From all these and more, one may not be blamed for too much speculation while thinking whether there is some masterminding--somewhere--outside Bangladesh to create situations that would justify the international labeling of Bangladesh as a country of terrorists. If this description as a gradually failing state can be successfully hoisted and maintained against this country , then many veiled objectives can be fulfilled by these quarters from paving the way for international intervention in this country for combating terrorism to suppressing its emerging economy from lack of investments to make it dependent on foreign goods. The secretary general of the BNP has harkened about such possibilities. His remarks may have been politically tinged . But his observations cannot be dismissed off entirely as too flippant. Therefore, government needs to monitor everything proactively--inside and outside the country--to ascertain whether such a planned move is at all there or not and if it is there, to counter it very effectively. For there are inherent dangers in allowing this image of Bangladesh to stabilize in the international conception that Bangladesh is a terrorism infested country. Foreign investments, already plunging, will decline further if the campaign to make out Bangladesh as a very troubled country by terrorism, is allowed to progress smoothly. Not only the economy of the country would be hurt, its sovereignty at one point may stand threatened with international or foreign demands made on it to allow its territories to be visited by foreign forces to fight terrorism on the excuse that Bangladesh has not been doing a good job in this area.
The doables before the government ought to be very clear. Sporadic actions against the JMB and similar organizations will not be enough. Investigations were conducted under previous governments to know who their real backers were. It could not be that such well organized agents of terror could be spontaneously formed by their own sheer will. From the nature of their operations, it was evident that they could draw on the guidance, resources and support of external as well as internal quarters behind the wings. The present government should learn and get clues from the investigation of its predecessors, evaluate them and engage in fresh investigations of its own to get at the roots or sources of the terror. The best anti-terrorism results can be only obtained from pinpointing the big backers and delinking them from the terror networks. The backers will have to be targeted for arrest and all forms of punitive actions as would be possible. Foreign governments and international organizations may have to be appealed to for getting their zestful cooperation in taking actions against these big backers of terror in Bangladesh.
The government in Bangladesh should also launch psychological warfare against the extremists. The imams of mosques should be urged to tell their audiences in every congregation that terrorism of the JMB variety has no sanction in Islam and how the same constitutes cardinal sins. Regular publicities in the mass media should make people conscious about the modus operandi of the terror networks so that people would not shelter them, recognize them easily and tell the security agencies about their whereabouts. In sum, a main plank of the government strategy ought to be one of isolating them from the mainstream population making their detection and arrests easier. People should come round to understanding well from these publicities how the rearing of terrorism can have very shattering effects on the country's normal life and living and its economy in the mid and long terms.
And of course, the bottom line is that it is only high quality intelligence and law enforcement activities that can help Bangladesh in the rehabilitation of its image as one not burdened by terrorism.