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Bangladesh Assessment 2001

The October 1 general elections in Bangladesh brought a new right wing regime, backed by extremist Islamist fundamentalist forces into a clear majority. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) led four party alliance won 214 of the parliament’s 300 seats while the outgoing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League could win only 62 seats in country’s most violent elections in which 140 persons were killed.

Apart from the BNP itself, which has exploited an Islamist platform for political ends since its inception, the new parliament has 16 members from the militant Islamists Jamaat-e-Islami, which has been allegedly linked to several acts of extremist violence and running training camps for pan-Islamic terrorists in the country for several years. The Jammat also has received support from Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which includes funding, arms flows and technical and training support.

Given the past record of the BNP and its allies, the new regime is expected to provide a more favourable context for the operation of extremist forces in the country. Reports indicate that many members of the ruling alliance have direct business linkages with corporations and financial operations that are run by or co-owned with leaders of terrorist groups operating in India’s Northeast and in Bangladesh. During Begum Khaleda Zia’s last tenure, Bangladesh had encouraged and allowed a large number of volunteers to fight in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union and subsequently in Jammu and Kashmir. A large number of these extremists are now present in Bangladesh and are spreading the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Bangladesh, which has extensive connections with the International Islamic Jihadi movement led by the Afghanistan based Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda.

The past record and public posture notwithstanding, the new government has been cautious. Despite pressures from its allies to condemn the US led military operations in Afghanistan, the new Prime Minister has portrayed herself as a staunch ally of the United States. The government has also decided to upheld the decision taken by the caretaker government to provide logistic facilities to the US-led alliance forces in global war against terrorism.

Despite a temporary lull in terrorist activities—partially due to pressure on Islamist extremist groupings after September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and the fact that imperatives of anti-state violence have declined because a sympathetic incumbent regime—terrorist and subversive activities of religious extremists and Pan Islamic terrorist outfits remain the most serious threat to internal security in Bangladesh.

Available evidence prior to the October elections suggests increasing involvement of Islamic fundamentalist organisations in terrorist and subversive activities in Bangladesh. There were a number of bomb blasts in the country in the year 2001. On January 20, there were two separate bomb blasts in Dhaka in which an estimated six persons were killed and 50 others injured. Home Minister Mohammad Nasim held Jamaat-e-Islami and its associated organisations responsible for blasts. Water Resources Minister Abdur Razzak accused Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for the same. On April 14, at least eight persons were killed in a bomb blast at a Bengali New Year cultural function in Dhaka. On June 8, police arrested four persons including Maoulana Mohammad Akbar Hossain, Vice Principal of Siddirganj Madrassah for their alleged involvement in the blast. In the month of June more than 31 persons were killed in two separate bomb blasts. Ten persons were killed and 25 others injured in a bomb blast at a Catholic Church mission church at Baniachar, Gopalganj district, on June 3. Again on June 15, an estimated 21 persons were killed and over 100 injured in a bomb blast at the Awami League party office at Narayanganj town. The foreign Minister said the unholy nexus of extreme religious zealots and fundamentalist elements with organised International terrorist groups was responsible for the blast. On June 29, police arrested an activist of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) for his alleged involvement in the Narayanganj blast.

An alliance of Islamic fundamentalist outfits, Islamic Okiya Jote (IOJ), a member of the Opposition alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), intensified its campaign against the December 2000 High Court verdict banning two fatwas (religious edicts). The alliance declared two judges Mr. Golam Rabbani and Mr. Nazmun Ara Sultana, who had delivered the verdict, as murtad (the enemy of Islam) and pronounced death sentences on them. The IOJ has also declared a jehad against the United Forum of the Citizens, a group of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) which supported the High Court's action of banning the fatwas.

A series of strikes were organised by the alliance in protest. Following the murder of a policeman, who was dragged inside a mosque and killed on February 3, police launched a major crackdown. Top leaders of the alliance including its chief, Shaikhul Hadit Maulan Azizul Huq, who is also the chief of Ulema Mashaek organisation; the secretary-general Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini (who is also the convenor of the "Committee for Implementation of Islamic Laws" and also the secretary-general of the radical Islamic Unity Alliance) and several activists were arrested under the Public Safety Act on charges of threatening to kill the two High Court judges and damaging public and private properties. A madarassa, run by IOJ leaders was raided and a large number of lethal weapons were seized. The township of Brahmanbaria, the stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which borders the Indian state of Tripura, witnessed several violent protests against the crackdown in which seven persons were killed and an estimated 100 injured during clashes between Islamic fundamentalists and security force personnel. The rest of the country, by and large, remained peaceful. Meanwhile, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of the verdict and is in the process of reviewing it.

Meanwhile, resentment against the Chittangong Hill Tracts (CHT) peace accord of December 1997 intensified in the year 2001. On February 16, 2001, three foreign nationals - one British and two Danish engineers were abducted in the Naniarchar forests of the Rangamati Hill District, Chittagong by the suspected activists of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF). The UPDF was formed by former associates of Shanto Larma with whom the government signed the 1997 peace accord. The outfit opposes the 1997 peace accord, which ended more than two decades of insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The hostages were released following a commando action on March 17.

On March 8, insurgents opposed to the CHT Peace Treaty, abducted three pro-Peace Treaty activists and injured another in Rangamati. On March 9 three Pahri Chhatra Parishad (PCP) activists abducted from Shuvalong, Rangamati district, Chittagong. Again, on March 23 another PCP activists was abducted by the UPDF in the same district.

The Chittagong Hills Tract Regional Council, which was created after the peace accord is also not happy with the pace of implementation of the peace accord. Its leader Goutam Chakma, on May 13, met CHT Affairs Minister Kalpa Ranjan Chakma in Dhaka to expedite the process of the full implementation of the CHT Peace Accord, 1997. The delegation also met the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed on May 18, 2001. After a meeting between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghaty Samity (PCJSS) chief and CHT Regional Council Chairman Jyotirindra Bodhipiya Larma and CHT Task Force Affairs Chairman Dipankar Talukdar on July 1, the government and the PCJSS agreed to jointly work for the quick implementation of the December 1997 accord.

These trends in 2001 were unlike year 2000 where, barring some sporadic and isolated incidents, Bangladesh was largely free of terrorist violence. The growth of Islamic fundamentalism and its alleged links with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, as well as with International Islamist terrorist outfits posed a serious threat to Bangladesh's internal security as also to regional security. Another area of concern was the increasing use of Bangladesh's territory by various extremist groups operating in India’s Northeast as a base to launch terrorist operations directed against India. The active support of Islamist fundamentalist organisations also enable the ISI and foreign Islamist terrorist outfits to function in Bangladesh with impunity.

A number of transnational Islamic terrorist groups, including the Al-Qaida of Osama bin Laden, have established a presence in Bangladesh in alliance with the various fundamentalist organisations in the country. The Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami, established in 1992, and reportedly being aided by Osama bin Laden and the ISI, is said to maintain several terrorist camps in the CHT. The cadres of the outfit who style themselves as the ‘Bangladeshi Taliban’ are alleged to infiltrate regularly into the eastern corridor of India to maintain contacts with terrorist and subversive outfits of the region. The covert activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaida came to the fore during the visit of the then United States President, Bill Clinton, to Bangladesh in March 2000. According to news reports, one of the reasons for the cancellation of President Clinton's scheduled visit to Joypura village and the national memorial at Savan was due to alleged threats that emanated from Al-Quaida.

Earlier in 1999, security force personnel had shut down the Dhaka office of Jago Mujahid, a monthly newsmagazine, for allegedly publishing pro-Taliban articles. There is increasing evidence of a collusive network between various over-ground organisations in Bangladesh and the Taliban to procure and maintain funds for the transnational Islamic terror network. Responding to this growing support network, the Bangladeshi government on June 13, 2000, as earlier requested by the United Nations Security Council, instituted an inquiry to ascertain if Taliban-related funds were being procured and maintained within the country.

The Islamic fundamentalists in conjunction with transnational Islamic networks and certain political parties within the country had posed a serious threat to the then ruling Awami League government of Shiekh Hasina Wajed. Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), the leading extremist Islamic outfit, which was allowed a free run during the previous regime of Begum Khaleda Zia, has now come under increased scrutiny after an assassination attempt on the then Prime Minister Hasina Wajed, on July 22, 2000, allegedly by the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of the JeI. Four activists of the ICS were arrested in connection with this incident. The Jamaat-e-Islami is alleged to have collaborated with the Pakistani army in the genocidal campaign to crush Bangladesh’s independence movement in 1971. The JeI leader Ghulam Azam, a vocal supporter of the pro-Pakistani element in Bangladesh, is one of the prominent leaders of the Begum Khalida Zia led alliance, and had been forced into exile till he was permitted to return during Begum Zia’s regime.

Adding a twist to the assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the then Home Minister, Mohammad Nasim later accused a local Islamic terrorist group, believed by analysts to be the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, of having collaborated in the assassination attempt against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

The ICS was also held responsible for the killing of nine persons including seven leaders of the pro-Awami League students’ outfit in Chittagong on July 12, 2000. These killings revived the demands made by pro-liberation forces in Bangladesh to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami. Consequent to this incident, the Bangladeshi government decided to curb the violent activities of ICS cadres. But the large-scale operation to arrest the Shibir cadres responsible for violent incidents was not effective due to lack of support from the BNP led alliance.

As part of the measures to effectively contain religious fundamentalism and subversive elements, the Bangladesh government enacted the Public Safety Act (PSA) on February 15, 2000. The Act is primarily intended to ensure the arrest and speedy trial of alleged offenders. Under the PSA bail provisions for the accused have also been tightened.

The various terrorist outfits operating in the Northeastern region of India continue to use Bangladeshi territory for subversive activities against India. The Indian government during the April 2000-visit of the Bangladesh Home Secretary expressed concern over the alleged presence of front ranking leaders of terrorist outfits, including that of Paresh Baruah, Chief of the 'Military Wing' of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), and the Bodo terrorist leader Ranjan Daimari in Bangladesh. On July 21, 2000 a 'Sergeant Major' of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Issak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) who was reported to be the mastermind of arms and ammunition smuggling operations from Bangladesh to the North Eastern States was arrested in Jingkieng Nongthymmai in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalya, India. The visiting Bangladeshi delegation was informed about the approximately 100 transit and training camps being run by the various terrorist outfits across the Indian border in Bangladesh. Anup Chetia, former general secretary of the ULFA, who was arrested in October 1998 in Bangladesh on charges of illegal possession of foreign currency, was sentenced to three years in jail on February18, 2001.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took cognizance of the problem of terrorist activities against India from Bangladesh soil, and said that the cross-border flow of arms and ammunition would be investigated and discussed by the Foreign Secretaries of Bangladesh and India. She also added that arms and ammunition were being bought by Muslim fundamentalists in connivance with the terrorist outfits in India’s Eastern. The Bangladesh Premier gave an assurance that separatist and terrorist outfits would not be allowed to operate from Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh have also agreed to activate the system of regular meetings of Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of the districts on both sides of the border.

The internecine feuds of terrorist outfits based in the Northeast of India have now spilled over into areas along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The worst incident involved an attack by the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) terrorists on July 9, 2000, on the headquarters of a rival terrorist grouping, the Bru National Liberation Force (BNLF), in the Jampui Hills in Bangladesh. Some 70 BNLF cadres, including top leaders, were killed in this incident.

Although the problem of tribal identity and the rights of Bengali settlers in the CHT persists, relative stability prevailed in this region in the year 2000. The only issue that caused concern was the implementation of the historic CHT Accord signed in December 1997. Tribals, who constitute more than a half of the one million people of the CHT, have strong reservations regarding their cultural identity and exclusive rights in the hills. On May 20, 2000, the Chairman of the CHT Regional Council (CHTRC) Jyotindra Larma, who is also the chief of the Parbattya Chhatagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (Chittagong Hill Tracts United People’s Party), held a rally in Dhaka and threatened to launch a movement if the peace accord was not implemented in its entirety. Consequently, the Prime Minister announced the first-ever review meeting of development activities in Chittagong. On the other hand, Bengali settlers, a majority of whom settled in the region at the behest of various military regimes in Bangladesh, are concerned about their rights to reside and earn a livelihood in the region. There also exists a strong constituency within Bangladesh that is opposed to the CHT Accord on the ground that it is inherently discriminatory in nature as it allows the tribals to posses exclusive rights to own property in the area and to contest in elections to the local government while denying the similar rights to the citizens from other parts of the country.

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