The Islamic
State-inspired attack in an upmarket eatery in Dhaka that has taken the
lives of 20 hostages, two policemen, and six terrorists, should be a
watershed in the fight against Islamist radicalism in Bangladesh.
But
whether or not it is depends vitally on the dynamics of domestic
politics, where the increasingly authoritarian Awami League government
of Sheikh Hasina is locked in a no-quarter-given battle against her
rival Bangladesh National Party President Khaleda Zia.
Islamism
India
and the international community need to make it absolutely clear to the
two Begums that their battle, which has allowed Islamism to flourish in
their country, is now providing space for the Islamic State and the Al
Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) to spread their roots and become
an existential threat to Bangladesh.
India, and indeed the world, cannot afford to sit by idly while this happens.
Given
Bangladesh’s location, happenings there have a vital bearing on our
security, and we need to confront this emerging challenge with
determination, sophistication and a cool head.
Islamism
is not a new factor in Bangladesh. It has deep roots going back to the
years that led to the partition of the country in the 1930s. As such,
Islamist groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Islami Okiya Jote,
Khelafat Majlis, and a clutch of other organisations have been active
for years, but their context has been largely local, even though some
have advocated a global Islamic Caliphate.
There
is, of course, another sinister element, Pakistan’s ISI, which has
funded and used several of these groups to launch attacks against
India.
Pakistani
proxies like the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba are active in Bangladesh, again with
a view of using it as a springboard to attack India. Even violent
outfits like Harkat-ul Jihad Islami and Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB) have functioned in a local context. These groups have been
involved in attacks on writers, poets, bloggers and free thinkers since
the attack on Shamshur Rehman in 1999.
In 2016 we
have seen an increase in such assaults in the killings of Nazimuddin
Samad, Rezaul Siddique, and Xulhaz Mannan, as well as in the targeting
of Hindu temples and priests.
However,
and importantly, the context has changed in recent years with
international Islamist groups like Al Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and now the
Islamic State, which earlier found South Asia a difficult prospect,
establishing a foothold in the country.
The
recruitment efforts of both AQIS and the Islamic State have benefited
from poaching from local jihadi outfits. But most importantly, they have
gained from the inability of the government to effectively deal with
the jihadists.
In many instances, the people attacked by them have been thrown into jail and charged with blasphemy.
Mainstream
Perhaps
the most difficult task confronting India and the international
community is to persuade the mainstream political forces to moderate
their competition to prevent radical forces from gaining ground.
Islamism
has been encouraged by South Asian dictators to consolidate their power.
Zia-ul Haq in Pakistan and Zia-ur-Rehman in Bangladesh moved
simultaneously in 1977 to Islamise their respective states.
Subsequently another dictator, HM Ershad, declared Islam to be the state religion of Bangladesh in 1988.
In both Pakistan and Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) played a key role in supporting their moves.
In
Bangladesh, Zia lifted the ban on the outfit which had supported
Pakistani repression of Bangladesh in 1971. Today, the Jamaat-e-Islami
remains one of the least understood, but most pernicious vehicles of
Islamism in both countries.
The alliance of the BNP with the JeI makes any effort to deal with Islamism in Bangladesh difficult.
Surveillance
While
there is no need for alarm, we in India need to step up surveillance
and ensure that we can separate the hard-core motivators and trainers
from the gullible and naïve youths who stray into the process and are
then brainwashed.
n July
2015, Mail Today reported on the manner in which the authorities in
Hyderabad detected 20 young individuals in the process of being
radicalised through a mixture of the internet and their social
networks.
Instead
of arresting them, the authorities counselled them and now maintain a
watch on them. The process is not easy and requires specially-trained
personnel which are in short supply.
It
is easy to slam suspects in jail and use third-degree methods, a
process that surely results in hardening the radicals into fully-fledged
militants and terrorists.
The
experience of Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood (the ideological
progenitor of JeI) has revealed that simple repression is not enough to
deal with the situation.
At the diplomatic level, concerted international pressure needs to be put on the two Begums to get their act together.
Bangladesh
needs to be assisted in putting in place a deradicalisation strategy,
along with better quality counter-terrorism procedures.
The
situation must be dealt with subtlety and care, rather than blundering
into another ‘global war against terrorism’ which actually catalysed the
formation of the Islamic State.
Mail Today July 3, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment