AP, New Delhi :
Within six days of announcing a crackdown on Islamist militants, Bangladesh had filled its jailhouses with 11,600 new detainees in what seemed like an astonishing display of law enforcement might. The problem is, less than 2 percent of those picked up are suspected radicals, and not one is considered to be a high-level operative.
The rest? Most are accused of petty crimes such as theft, burglary or small-time drug smuggling. At least 2,000 are members of the main opposition party, according to its spokesman, while others were believed to belong to a key ally of that party.
Analysts, rights groups and opponents of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government now question the crackdown. Was it truly an effort to stop a series of brazen, deadly attacks by Muslim extremists on various minorities, or an attempt to gain political advantage from the fear the killings have generated at home and abroad?
Lisa Curtis, an expert on South Asia at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., said a crackdown on extremists was needed. But given that only 177 of the thousands detained are actually suspected of radical militancy, according to police, she said that the dragnet will begin to look more like a tool to pressure the political opposition rather than a serious effort to stop the attacks.
The law enforcement campaign could actually deepen the divide between the secular government’s supporters and those longing for Islamic rule, possibly even encouraging militants, analysts said.
“The current political deadlock in the country is opening the door for Islamist extremists to gain more recruits and influence, and will make it difficult for the Bangladeshi government to build a national consensus against the extremists,” Curtis said.
Bangladesh, in addressing the criticism over the crackdown, pledged to refocus its security efforts against suspected militants blamed for the killings of nearly two dozen atheist writers, publishers, religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers since 2013. Many of those deaths have occurred in recent months.
The so-called “machete attacks” have terrified the country’s minorities and triggered alarm in the United States and Europe, where some governments have begun offering asylum to those at risk. In most of the killings, a group of young men cut their victims down with meat cleavers and machetes before fleeing the scene.
While most of the attacks have been claimed by either the Islamic State or groups affiliated with al-Qaida, the government denies the presence of either transnational jihadi group in Bangladesh.
Instead, Hasina’s government accuses local terrorists and Islamist political parties – especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami – of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation. The two parties deny any involvement.
Hasina announced the crackdown last week, after the wife of a police superintendent was shot and stabbed to death. The victim had been an ardent campaigner against militants, and many within the country’s establishment were stunned by the attack on someone they had considered as one of their own.
Within six days of announcing a crackdown on Islamist militants, Bangladesh had filled its jailhouses with 11,600 new detainees in what seemed like an astonishing display of law enforcement might. The problem is, less than 2 percent of those picked up are suspected radicals, and not one is considered to be a high-level operative.
The rest? Most are accused of petty crimes such as theft, burglary or small-time drug smuggling. At least 2,000 are members of the main opposition party, according to its spokesman, while others were believed to belong to a key ally of that party.
Analysts, rights groups and opponents of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government now question the crackdown. Was it truly an effort to stop a series of brazen, deadly attacks by Muslim extremists on various minorities, or an attempt to gain political advantage from the fear the killings have generated at home and abroad?
Lisa Curtis, an expert on South Asia at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., said a crackdown on extremists was needed. But given that only 177 of the thousands detained are actually suspected of radical militancy, according to police, she said that the dragnet will begin to look more like a tool to pressure the political opposition rather than a serious effort to stop the attacks.
The law enforcement campaign could actually deepen the divide between the secular government’s supporters and those longing for Islamic rule, possibly even encouraging militants, analysts said.
“The current political deadlock in the country is opening the door for Islamist extremists to gain more recruits and influence, and will make it difficult for the Bangladeshi government to build a national consensus against the extremists,” Curtis said.
Bangladesh, in addressing the criticism over the crackdown, pledged to refocus its security efforts against suspected militants blamed for the killings of nearly two dozen atheist writers, publishers, religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers since 2013. Many of those deaths have occurred in recent months.
The so-called “machete attacks” have terrified the country’s minorities and triggered alarm in the United States and Europe, where some governments have begun offering asylum to those at risk. In most of the killings, a group of young men cut their victims down with meat cleavers and machetes before fleeing the scene.
While most of the attacks have been claimed by either the Islamic State or groups affiliated with al-Qaida, the government denies the presence of either transnational jihadi group in Bangladesh.
Instead, Hasina’s government accuses local terrorists and Islamist political parties – especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami – of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation. The two parties deny any involvement.
Hasina announced the crackdown last week, after the wife of a police superintendent was shot and stabbed to death. The victim had been an ardent campaigner against militants, and many within the country’s establishment were stunned by the attack on someone they had considered as one of their own.
