Heading For Disaster

If US Congressional Research report on Bangladesh is to be believed, Bangladesh's political and economic development continues to be hampered by the forces of corruption, radicalism, and partisan fighting. Series of demonstrations and strikes have become the order of the day; blame it to the rivalry between the leaders of the nation's two largest political parties.

According to experts, the frustration caused by the combination of poverty, corruption, and the lack of good governance due to a stalemated political process has contributed to increasing radicalization of society and thereby to the recruitment of Islamist radicals to the cause of terrorism.

In early 2005 there was increased concern over the rise of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh. Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh National Party (BNP) has coalition partners in Government that have ties to radical Islamist elements that give cause for concern. It may be recalled that the radical Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) is thought to have ties to both Al Qaeda and the Islamic Oikya Jote, which is a coalition partner in the Government. HuJI is on the United States State Department list of other terrorist organizations and is thought to have been behind an assassination attempt on then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2000. HuJI also signed the 1998 fatwa by Osama bin Laden that declared American civilians to be legitimate targets.

Then there is Fundamentalist leader Bangla Bhai who has been accused of having ties to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which is another coalition partner with the BNP Government. Bangla Bhai fought in Afghanistan and is seeking to install a Taliban-style Government in Bangladesh, particularly in areas bordering India.

His supporters have reportedly terrorized Communists, Leftists, liberal intellectuals, Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists in the cause of promoting Islamic extremism. The Bangladesh Government banned Bangla Bhai's organization in 2005. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League survived an assassination attempt in August 2004 when a grenade was thrown at her which killed 20 others. Hasina has accused the BNP Jamaat alliance of being involved in the assassination attempt. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has reportedly stated that there are no Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh. Such attacks have undermined political stability in Bangladesh.

There is concern among analysts that Bangladesh might serve as a base from which both South and South-East Asian terrorists could regroup. There have been reports that up to 150 Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters fled to Bangladesh from Afghanistan in December 2001 aboard the MV Mecca, which sailed from Karachi to Chittagong.

This was evidently not the beginning of Al Qaeda connections with Bangladesh. Al Qaeda had reportedly recruited Burmese Muslims, known as the Rohingya, from refugee camps in south-eastern Bangladesh to fight in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya. An Al Qaeda affiliate, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) was founded by Osama bin Laden associate Fazlul Rahman. HuJI is also on the State Department's list of other terrorist organizations. Rahman joined bin Laden's World Islamic Front for the Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders in 1998.

It has the objective of establishing Islamic rule in Bangladesh. HuJI has recruited its members, thought to number from several thousand to 15,000, from the tens of thousands of madarsas in Bangladesh, many of which are led by veterans of the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The organization is thought to have at least six camps in Bangladesh as well as ties to militants in Pakistan.

There are also reports, based on information derived from the interrogation of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) leader Hambali, who was arrested in Thailand in August 2003, that indicate that he had made a decision to shift JI elements to Bangladesh in response to recent counter-terrorist activity in Southeast Asia. The decision to move operations west may also be evident in the arrest of 13 Malaysians and six Indonesians, including Hambali's brother Rusman Gunawan, in Pakistan in September 2003.