Patterns of Terrorism in Bangladesh

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the world was embroiled in a tussle between two global superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union. A clash was ongoing between Western democracy and Soviet communism, which the historians have termed the Cold War. At that time, most South Asian nations were aligned with the US, except India, which was a close ally of the Soviet Union. The alignment was most evident in Afghanistan, which was closer to the Soviet border.

To break this alliance, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and a 10-year long war ensued. To win that war, the US needed fighters who would attack the Soviet troops, and with this purpose it trained thousands of students coming out of religious seminaries in Afghanistan and formed the Mujahideen force, which engaged in an open fight with the Soviets. After a decade, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the US emerged as victorious, establishing total control across the globe.

In the meantime, thousands of Mujahideen fighters suddenly found themselves useless, and subsequent US actions in the Middle East influenced them to channel their energies towards a new fight against the US itself. The covert fight followed through the 90’s, and it showed its ugly head in 2001, when the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, popularly known as Twin Tower, in New York City and hijacked planes flying over the US sky. These events led the then US president George W. Bush to declare the “War on Terror", culminating in the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing American soldiers and religious fighters from the Middle East into a new battlefield. After toppling the governments, prolonging the wars and killing thousands of civilians and warriors, the US subsequently withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving both countries in a state of instability and chaos. Religious groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan assumed power and since then have been ruling over the lands desecrated by western forces over many decades.

As a Muslim majority country, Bangladesh primarily acted as an observer to these events, but hidden plots were being hatched behind the curtain. During the Soviet-Afghan War, some Bangladeshi youth from the country’s religious seminaries volunteered and joined the war on behalf of the Afghan fighters. They returned to Bangladesh after the end of the war with trainings, war experiences and their religious zeal intact. In 1992, some of these Afghan-returnees formed Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (Huji-B), and six years later, in 1998, some offshoots of this terrorist group formed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Although there was no major terrorist event in Bangladesh during the 90’s, the scene quickly changed at the beginning of the 21st century. As the Twin Tower fell in the US, the wave of terrorism soon engulfed Bangladesh, and simultaneous bomb blasts across the country began to reverberate. During the second term of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lasting from 2001 to 2006, members of Huji-B and JMB attacked political rallies, cultural events and ignited nationwide fear through simultaneous bomb blasts in 63 out of 64 districts within a span of only 30 minutes. Both groups were banned soon, and some of their top leaders were executed. Although peace prevailed for some time, it was interrupted again in 2016, when members from the Islamic State’s (IS) local unit killed 20 people, including 17 foreigners, in an ambush at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s affluent Gulshan area. Recently, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has indicated the expansion of a new terrorist group, namely Al-Qaeda in South Asia (AQIS), in Bangladesh. The report has come out at a time when the law enforcers are recovering explosives in and around Dhaka city one after another, which is creating fear and insecurity among the country’s people.

There is a pattern behind terrorism in Bangladesh. A closer look over the last two and a half decades of Bangladeshi politics reveals that terrorism rises when BNP comes to power, dies down when Awami League forms government, and again springs up when BNP returns to power. To understand the hidden meaning behind this pattern, we need to understand who profits from terrorist activities in Bangladesh the most. BNP has long been identified as a religiously moderate political party, while Awami League has been historically seen as inclining towards Secularism, one of the fundamental tenets of Bangladesh constitution. If BNP is in power and terrorist attacks take place, Awami League gets an opportunity to portray Bangladesh as a communal, extremist, unstable country to the western world. On the contrary, if the Awami League is in power, any terrorist attack gives it enough ground to blame BNP by claiming that the latter is trying to create instability in the country through patronising religious extremism. Keeping both facts in mind, it can be concluded that terrorism in Bangladesh benefits Awami League the most.

Awami League is currently out of power, and its leader is absconding at this moment. As the party is barred from political activities, the only thing that it can do is promote and resort to subversive activities so that the BNP government cannot enjoy a peaceful, stable run. This is why the government must find out who is training, financing and supporting terrorist groups like AQIS again after all these years, and bring those responsible to book.

As a religiously moderate government, BNP must ensure that it does not do such things which provide terrorist groups with the opportunity to expand and use the laxity in law enforcement to carry out subversive activities. The home minister has dismissed the UNSC report on AQIS expansion as mere speculation, which puts the government in denial mode. As a country with 90% of its population being Muslim, with a previous history of participation in global jihadist activities, and with an opportunist political party like Awami League in the underground, the government must not brush aside possibilities of the resurgence of terrorism. Rather, the government must use all of its law enforcement agencies to full capacity to find out if the UNSC concern is true and if vested quarters are trying to use Bangladesh as a fertile ground to hatch any vicious plots.

As terrorist attacks have taken place in Bangladesh in the past, it might happen again, and with Awami League in the back foot, the impact might be bigger this time. Denying the possibilities of terrorism without thorough scrutiny will do us no good. Rather, keeping eyes wide open and taking necessary steps to prevent violence are the keys to ensuring safety of the country’s people.
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The writer is a Sub Editor at Daily Sun. He can be reached at: [email protected]