Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Influenced largely by the ideology of international jihadi organisations, local militants have intensified attacks on liberal thinkers, rights activists, bloggers, religious minorities, cops and their family members, raising fears of whether Islamic radicals gaining a foothold in the country, observers said on Saturday.
They observed that militants have killed more than 30 people in Bangladesh since February last year, showing the sudden emergence of Islamic militants that may also be linked with geopolitics and foreign conspiracy.
“Militants are carrying out organised attacks in the recent times showing the potential signs that Islamic fundamentalism steadily gaining foothold in Bangladesh,” Prof Amena Mohsin, who teaches in the Department of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, told The New Nation on Saturday.
She said they have intensified such attacks now-a-days claiming lives of many, including members of religious minorities, liberal bloggers and academics, creating horror among the people and posing a real threat to the state security.
Prof Amena Mohsin believes that local militant groups may not be linked with international Jihadi organisations but they are carrying out target killings here influenced largely by their (international Jihadi organisations) ideology.
When asked, she said, the issues of geopolitics and foreign conspiracy cannot be ignored in the current wave of targeted killings by the suspected militants when Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress in various social and economic indicators and a political squabble is also prevailed in the country.
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for many of such killings, but the government denied their involvement because intelligence gathering by security agencies does not support their claim, said Prof Amena Mohsin.
“As a political squabble is prevailing in the country, a third-party might be involved in hatching a conspiracy to destabilize the country by supporting militant groups,” she apprehends.
She also fears that the situation could be deteriorating further if the government fails to take stringent measures against militancy and terrorism.
“IS is not involved in this secret killings in Bangladesh and even they have no link with local militant groups but some foreign jihadi organisations based in Pakistan might be involved in backing local groups,” Dr Khandaker Ibrahim Khalid, a leading economist of the country told The New Nation on Saturday night.
He said apart from this, local and foreign conspiracies are on to destabilise the country. He also said that this sort of killing rise when any Jamaat leader is executed for his crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War. So, he said, it could be easily predict that Jamaat is perpetrating the killings from behind the scene.
