Editorial Desk :
Bangladesh government will not listen to impartial terrorism experts who say that Bangladesh is not a country of extremism, but now it needs to create an environment for harnessing strength of unity of the people to combat the menace. But the government believes it has the unity of the people though not involving the people.
Prof Reaz, a renowned anti-terrorism expert based in the USA, said that violent extremism cannot be countered by security operations alone. Yet the government is all eager for empowering the police to feel free to arrest thousands of people on mere suspicion and keeping them in jail under a blank policy not to granting them bail. The arrested persons must not be granted bail so their version remains unknown. Such a policy is proving helpful for arresting wrongly the innocent young ones and antagonising them.
Militancy in the country is only spreading despite the government’s zero tolerance towards militants over the past years. It now appears that something was seriously wrong
in the government’s method of fighting violence with violence blaming the political opponents BNP-Jamaat for it and yet militants continued to grow under Awami League government.
It cannot be denied even by the government that violence has grown into terrible militancy. The government needs to be assured by India and other countries that they are ready to help the government in combating what is called terrorism. There is nothing new about India’s help. India is closely involved since our war for liberation was won with India’s direct help. If the situation has deteriorated India has been fully aware.
In fact, Awami League’s politics against Islamist militancy dates back to its coming to power in 1996. Based on the cry of wolf by Awami League, the US Secret Service on March 20, 2000 decided that visiting US President Bill Clinton’s 35-km excursion from Dhaka by helicopter to Savar for paying homage to the Martyrs of Liberation War at the National Monument would be dangerous.
Despite assurances to the US agencies about the all-out security measure for the President by the then Awami League-led government, the US secret service categorically declined it citing fear of security.
In the past Awami League regime between 1996 and 2001, several militant attacks including Udichi bomb blast, CPB rally blast and Ramna Batamul bombing which were the first of its types were carried out. The government had failed to contain the militants or weaken militancy.
In 1999, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJi) conducted an attack on a cultural programme in Jessore that left 10 people dead. On April 14, 2001, the outfit conducted another attack during the Bangla New Year celebrations and left 10 people killed and 50 others injured.
In 2005, at least 26 people were killed in different militant attacks across the country. In that year, banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) launched suicide bomb attacks on the offices of cultural organisations Udichi and Shata Dal Shilpi Goshthi in Netrakona town and killed 8 people.
The year 2005 was the most eventful year until now for terrorism. That year, the militant groups carried out five attacks, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores of others. On January 5, 2005, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four other Awami League leaders and activists were killed and over 70 others injured when militants linked to HuJi launched a grenade attack. HuJi was declared outlawed on October 17 the same year by BNP administration. But it was found by police officials that the first charge-sheet against 10 accused was wrong and then ten were treated not responsible for the murder of Kibria. So where is the government for such horrendous lies about killing one of their very important leader.
Awami League came to power with the promise of zero tolerance for militancy. Empowered the police to use sweeping powers, extra-judicial killings became common and alarming. Forced disappearances also were widespread. Yet the five-year of Awami League-led government between 2009 and 2014, also witnessed a mammoth number of militant attacks and quick breeding of militancy, though until 2012 no major militant attack was recorded. In 2013, 228 civilians mostly bloggers, Islamic scholars, open-minded people and others, and 18 law-enforcers were killed by the militants.
Ansarullah Bangla Team’s presence was found in 2013, after the death of blogger Rajeeb Haider. Investigators discovered later that the outfit was responsible for a number of killings of bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh. After that, in 2014, 29 people and 9 law enforcers were killed. In 2015, 23 people and two policemen were killed, while in 2016 till today 42 people and 4 policemen were killed.
Police also killed nine suspected militants in an overnight operation in the city’s Kalyanpur area on July 26. In the three incidents from July 1 to July 26, all the ‘militants’ were killed by law enforcers despite there were scopes to get the suspected militants alive which could help us to know the mental makeup of the militants and who are backing them. The suspected militants are being killed to save real militants, which is too dangerous for police action. That is the public explanation why militancy is growing.
It is undeniable that the tendency of militancy among the youths is growing including students from renowned universities and well-off families are joining the outfits.
In fact, blaming Islamic parties may not have been well-founded and appears politically motivated. The young ones from all sections of the people are rising as militants and the government cannot think of reviewing its strategy to change the political environment enabling transparency and unity among the people.
We again urge the government to review its police dependent strategy to deal with the crisis of terrorism. The crisis is not as big as others will like us to believe. But if the government does not care to create politically enabling atmosphere, the inclusive police operations will make the crisis worse.
Bangladesh government will not listen to impartial terrorism experts who say that Bangladesh is not a country of extremism, but now it needs to create an environment for harnessing strength of unity of the people to combat the menace. But the government believes it has the unity of the people though not involving the people.
Prof Reaz, a renowned anti-terrorism expert based in the USA, said that violent extremism cannot be countered by security operations alone. Yet the government is all eager for empowering the police to feel free to arrest thousands of people on mere suspicion and keeping them in jail under a blank policy not to granting them bail. The arrested persons must not be granted bail so their version remains unknown. Such a policy is proving helpful for arresting wrongly the innocent young ones and antagonising them.
Militancy in the country is only spreading despite the government’s zero tolerance towards militants over the past years. It now appears that something was seriously wrong
in the government’s method of fighting violence with violence blaming the political opponents BNP-Jamaat for it and yet militants continued to grow under Awami League government.
It cannot be denied even by the government that violence has grown into terrible militancy. The government needs to be assured by India and other countries that they are ready to help the government in combating what is called terrorism. There is nothing new about India’s help. India is closely involved since our war for liberation was won with India’s direct help. If the situation has deteriorated India has been fully aware.
In fact, Awami League’s politics against Islamist militancy dates back to its coming to power in 1996. Based on the cry of wolf by Awami League, the US Secret Service on March 20, 2000 decided that visiting US President Bill Clinton’s 35-km excursion from Dhaka by helicopter to Savar for paying homage to the Martyrs of Liberation War at the National Monument would be dangerous.
Despite assurances to the US agencies about the all-out security measure for the President by the then Awami League-led government, the US secret service categorically declined it citing fear of security.
In the past Awami League regime between 1996 and 2001, several militant attacks including Udichi bomb blast, CPB rally blast and Ramna Batamul bombing which were the first of its types were carried out. The government had failed to contain the militants or weaken militancy.
In 1999, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJi) conducted an attack on a cultural programme in Jessore that left 10 people dead. On April 14, 2001, the outfit conducted another attack during the Bangla New Year celebrations and left 10 people killed and 50 others injured.
In 2005, at least 26 people were killed in different militant attacks across the country. In that year, banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) launched suicide bomb attacks on the offices of cultural organisations Udichi and Shata Dal Shilpi Goshthi in Netrakona town and killed 8 people.
The year 2005 was the most eventful year until now for terrorism. That year, the militant groups carried out five attacks, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores of others. On January 5, 2005, former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four other Awami League leaders and activists were killed and over 70 others injured when militants linked to HuJi launched a grenade attack. HuJi was declared outlawed on October 17 the same year by BNP administration. But it was found by police officials that the first charge-sheet against 10 accused was wrong and then ten were treated not responsible for the murder of Kibria. So where is the government for such horrendous lies about killing one of their very important leader.
Awami League came to power with the promise of zero tolerance for militancy. Empowered the police to use sweeping powers, extra-judicial killings became common and alarming. Forced disappearances also were widespread. Yet the five-year of Awami League-led government between 2009 and 2014, also witnessed a mammoth number of militant attacks and quick breeding of militancy, though until 2012 no major militant attack was recorded. In 2013, 228 civilians mostly bloggers, Islamic scholars, open-minded people and others, and 18 law-enforcers were killed by the militants.
Ansarullah Bangla Team’s presence was found in 2013, after the death of blogger Rajeeb Haider. Investigators discovered later that the outfit was responsible for a number of killings of bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh. After that, in 2014, 29 people and 9 law enforcers were killed. In 2015, 23 people and two policemen were killed, while in 2016 till today 42 people and 4 policemen were killed.
Police also killed nine suspected militants in an overnight operation in the city’s Kalyanpur area on July 26. In the three incidents from July 1 to July 26, all the ‘militants’ were killed by law enforcers despite there were scopes to get the suspected militants alive which could help us to know the mental makeup of the militants and who are backing them. The suspected militants are being killed to save real militants, which is too dangerous for police action. That is the public explanation why militancy is growing.
It is undeniable that the tendency of militancy among the youths is growing including students from renowned universities and well-off families are joining the outfits.
In fact, blaming Islamic parties may not have been well-founded and appears politically motivated. The young ones from all sections of the people are rising as militants and the government cannot think of reviewing its strategy to change the political environment enabling transparency and unity among the people.
We again urge the government to review its police dependent strategy to deal with the crisis of terrorism. The crisis is not as big as others will like us to believe. But if the government does not care to create politically enabling atmosphere, the inclusive police operations will make the crisis worse.
