Mohd Siddiqur Rahman :
We are profoundly shocked to have noticed the terrible attack at Holey Artisan Bakery, at Gulshan in Dhaka, Bangladesh that killed 20 people and wounded many more before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12 hour standoff on Saturday, 01st July, 2016. This is an unprecedented and deadliest terrorist attack the country has ever experienced during the reign. The whole episode is too much appalling and devastating to be described in few words. The Islamic State said it was responsible for this brazen attack in Bangladesh but this claim has yet to be confirmed. On the whole, this event of rarity has aroused a grave concern among the mass people and posed a big challenge to the administration.
Before the happening of above occurrence, the country was undergoing a spate of secret killing over the recent years, especially a great surge in last six months. Most killings have been on the liberals, foreigners and religious minorities.
It is felt imperative to reiterate and discourse a few episodes of secret killings for kind awareness and carefulness of our loving people. In late September and early October 2015, two foreign nationals were shot and killed. Since then as recently as June, 2016, attacks against religious minority groups including Shia, Ahmadiyya, Christians and Hindu communities have killed several people and injured many more.
Friday, 10th June, 16 Nittaranjan Pandey, a volunteer of a Hindu Ashram, was hacked to death in Pabna. Immediately after this incident, a hanging body of a college professor named Ramendranath Kundu 55, has been rescued from his residence in Magura town. On 05th June, a Christian shopkeeper at Natore, on 07th June, a Hindu priest at Zinaidaha, were murdered creating a great panic and anxiety in the religious minorities. According to statistics, 46 militant attacks in 18 months have been carried out on writers, intellectuals, Christians, Hindu, Shia, Ahmedia, cultural activists, Lalon devotees, Pir devotees, and even on the foreigners. Cross fire killed an assault suspect Gulam Fayjullah Fahim who was held in an attack on a teacher, was hit by cross fire when officers took him to help capture his associates, a high ranking police officer said. There might be more awful and fateful incidents to be known and informed.
Nevertheless, in the wake of series of killings, the law enforcing authority has conducted a seven day long from 10th to 16th June , a pincer movement in all districts and rounded up nearly 15000 persons of suspects. In this mass arrest a group of only 194 was held on suspicion of having militant ties. It is alleged that most arrestes are opposition political party workers and the police did a good ‘arrest business’. As reported, Bangladesh’s Jails have been packed up by the arrestees to the maximum capacities by this time.
Question arises about who is getting the perpetrators provoked to be operative in the region and what are the motive behind them ? To our surprise, Islamic State as well as India based AL-Qaeda simultaneously claimed responsibility for series of attacks in Bangladesh many times. But this could not be correctly figured out as yet by the country itself as there are some home grown outfits like 1. JMB- The Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh, 2. HUJI-Harkatul Jihad al-Islam, 3. AHAB- Ahle-Hadit Andolon Bangladesh, 4. HUT-Hijbut-Tawhid, 5. HT- Hizb-ut-Tahrir and many more with new name. Likely the militants aim to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh with violent means if necessary and to this end they directed the attacks on NGOs, cultural organizations, women and civil rights bodies and intellectuals who hold secular views. The activities of Islamic Militants as observed so far : All district series bomb attack, Court house explosion and many more .
Under enormous domestic and international pressures the government had to move into action and by March 2006, JMB leaders along with large number of activists had been arrested, prosecuted and in one year most of the leaders walked to the gallows. Meanwhile, HUJI, a terrorist organization with links to outside Bangladesh, was banned and its local leader Mufti Hannan was arrested in October 2005. Huji was accused of a number of bomb attacks. Other organizations that surfaced are : Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB) and Hizb-ut-Tawhid (HUT) seem to be conducting routine activities as per their respective ideologies. The Islamic State is said to be intensifying its efforts to recruit from the country’s huge Sunni Muslim population. Despite various developments, government continues to insist ISIS has no significant presence in the country. The government opine that the local trouble makers could be inspired by the wild acts of the Islamic State.
Nevertheless, it could be ascertained that some agents, outfits in different parts of the country probably being assisted and encouraged by elements not loving peace, have launched their special program to destabilize Bangladesh.
The deadliest attack on a restaurant at Gulshan is obviously a great blow on economy of Bangladesh. Nine Italians, seven Japanese and an American were killed in the offensive shattering the confidence of the expatriate community in Bangladesh . It will likely be leaving negative impact on garment exports and other merchandises to overseas markets. Exporters make their bulk of exports to EU nations and shipment to Japan, were steadily rising in recent years, but the killing of nine Italians, who were running buying houses for global brands here, and assassination of seven Japanese hostages has been a serious blow to the export markets. It has seriously tarnished our image abroad and intensified security concern in the minds of the foreigners.
Why Islamic Militancy in the world : The following could be the answer : 1. Periodical political violence, 2. Pervasion of institutional corruption, 3. Dynastic and poor governance and 4. Lack of visionary political leadership
The Islamic Militancy is the product of ideology which is alien to Bangladesh’s main stream of Islam, which had been preached and practiced by Sufi Saints for more than thousand years. Islamic militants in Bangladesh, like others across the globe, believe that they are engaged in a just struggle to establish an Islamic order, first in their own state then in the whole world. Anyway, militants are trying to hijack the peaceful image of Islam, which we cannot allow to happen. We therefore, need to formulate comprehensive strategy to counter the threat of militancy.
As we experience, unrest in the world arises out of unresolved conflicts between people, political groups fighting with one another and among themselves, religious fanatics kill innocent people indiscriminately, neighbors quarrel with one another. Besides, there is unrest caused by the criminals performing their tasks of robbing, cheating, hijacking. There are many reasons of conflicts to occur among our people. Ideological differences is one of the main factors causing the squabble between political parties. Moral degeneration is also a big factor bringing about unhappiness and unrest and snatching peace and harmony from the society.
We urge all concerned to help get rid of current awful, unhappy and tense situation prevaling in the country. Strong stance and justice without prejudice seem to be the prime need of the time. Since politics of conflicts, jealousies, atrocities and disappearance could hardly be able to address all problems and fight against all immoral acts of the society, it is recommended that all political parties, all stakeholders, all social scientists, members of civil society and concerned agents, forgetting their differences, assemble on the same platform to figure out solutions to the ongoing problems in multitude for the overall common interest of the country’s people.
(Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines, in Frankfurt, Germany writes from New York, USA).
We are profoundly shocked to have noticed the terrible attack at Holey Artisan Bakery, at Gulshan in Dhaka, Bangladesh that killed 20 people and wounded many more before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12 hour standoff on Saturday, 01st July, 2016. This is an unprecedented and deadliest terrorist attack the country has ever experienced during the reign. The whole episode is too much appalling and devastating to be described in few words. The Islamic State said it was responsible for this brazen attack in Bangladesh but this claim has yet to be confirmed. On the whole, this event of rarity has aroused a grave concern among the mass people and posed a big challenge to the administration.
Before the happening of above occurrence, the country was undergoing a spate of secret killing over the recent years, especially a great surge in last six months. Most killings have been on the liberals, foreigners and religious minorities.
It is felt imperative to reiterate and discourse a few episodes of secret killings for kind awareness and carefulness of our loving people. In late September and early October 2015, two foreign nationals were shot and killed. Since then as recently as June, 2016, attacks against religious minority groups including Shia, Ahmadiyya, Christians and Hindu communities have killed several people and injured many more.
Friday, 10th June, 16 Nittaranjan Pandey, a volunteer of a Hindu Ashram, was hacked to death in Pabna. Immediately after this incident, a hanging body of a college professor named Ramendranath Kundu 55, has been rescued from his residence in Magura town. On 05th June, a Christian shopkeeper at Natore, on 07th June, a Hindu priest at Zinaidaha, were murdered creating a great panic and anxiety in the religious minorities. According to statistics, 46 militant attacks in 18 months have been carried out on writers, intellectuals, Christians, Hindu, Shia, Ahmedia, cultural activists, Lalon devotees, Pir devotees, and even on the foreigners. Cross fire killed an assault suspect Gulam Fayjullah Fahim who was held in an attack on a teacher, was hit by cross fire when officers took him to help capture his associates, a high ranking police officer said. There might be more awful and fateful incidents to be known and informed.
Nevertheless, in the wake of series of killings, the law enforcing authority has conducted a seven day long from 10th to 16th June , a pincer movement in all districts and rounded up nearly 15000 persons of suspects. In this mass arrest a group of only 194 was held on suspicion of having militant ties. It is alleged that most arrestes are opposition political party workers and the police did a good ‘arrest business’. As reported, Bangladesh’s Jails have been packed up by the arrestees to the maximum capacities by this time.
Question arises about who is getting the perpetrators provoked to be operative in the region and what are the motive behind them ? To our surprise, Islamic State as well as India based AL-Qaeda simultaneously claimed responsibility for series of attacks in Bangladesh many times. But this could not be correctly figured out as yet by the country itself as there are some home grown outfits like 1. JMB- The Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh, 2. HUJI-Harkatul Jihad al-Islam, 3. AHAB- Ahle-Hadit Andolon Bangladesh, 4. HUT-Hijbut-Tawhid, 5. HT- Hizb-ut-Tahrir and many more with new name. Likely the militants aim to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh with violent means if necessary and to this end they directed the attacks on NGOs, cultural organizations, women and civil rights bodies and intellectuals who hold secular views. The activities of Islamic Militants as observed so far : All district series bomb attack, Court house explosion and many more .
Under enormous domestic and international pressures the government had to move into action and by March 2006, JMB leaders along with large number of activists had been arrested, prosecuted and in one year most of the leaders walked to the gallows. Meanwhile, HUJI, a terrorist organization with links to outside Bangladesh, was banned and its local leader Mufti Hannan was arrested in October 2005. Huji was accused of a number of bomb attacks. Other organizations that surfaced are : Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB) and Hizb-ut-Tawhid (HUT) seem to be conducting routine activities as per their respective ideologies. The Islamic State is said to be intensifying its efforts to recruit from the country’s huge Sunni Muslim population. Despite various developments, government continues to insist ISIS has no significant presence in the country. The government opine that the local trouble makers could be inspired by the wild acts of the Islamic State.
Nevertheless, it could be ascertained that some agents, outfits in different parts of the country probably being assisted and encouraged by elements not loving peace, have launched their special program to destabilize Bangladesh.
The deadliest attack on a restaurant at Gulshan is obviously a great blow on economy of Bangladesh. Nine Italians, seven Japanese and an American were killed in the offensive shattering the confidence of the expatriate community in Bangladesh . It will likely be leaving negative impact on garment exports and other merchandises to overseas markets. Exporters make their bulk of exports to EU nations and shipment to Japan, were steadily rising in recent years, but the killing of nine Italians, who were running buying houses for global brands here, and assassination of seven Japanese hostages has been a serious blow to the export markets. It has seriously tarnished our image abroad and intensified security concern in the minds of the foreigners.
Why Islamic Militancy in the world : The following could be the answer : 1. Periodical political violence, 2. Pervasion of institutional corruption, 3. Dynastic and poor governance and 4. Lack of visionary political leadership
The Islamic Militancy is the product of ideology which is alien to Bangladesh’s main stream of Islam, which had been preached and practiced by Sufi Saints for more than thousand years. Islamic militants in Bangladesh, like others across the globe, believe that they are engaged in a just struggle to establish an Islamic order, first in their own state then in the whole world. Anyway, militants are trying to hijack the peaceful image of Islam, which we cannot allow to happen. We therefore, need to formulate comprehensive strategy to counter the threat of militancy.
As we experience, unrest in the world arises out of unresolved conflicts between people, political groups fighting with one another and among themselves, religious fanatics kill innocent people indiscriminately, neighbors quarrel with one another. Besides, there is unrest caused by the criminals performing their tasks of robbing, cheating, hijacking. There are many reasons of conflicts to occur among our people. Ideological differences is one of the main factors causing the squabble between political parties. Moral degeneration is also a big factor bringing about unhappiness and unrest and snatching peace and harmony from the society.
We urge all concerned to help get rid of current awful, unhappy and tense situation prevaling in the country. Strong stance and justice without prejudice seem to be the prime need of the time. Since politics of conflicts, jealousies, atrocities and disappearance could hardly be able to address all problems and fight against all immoral acts of the society, it is recommended that all political parties, all stakeholders, all social scientists, members of civil society and concerned agents, forgetting their differences, assemble on the same platform to figure out solutions to the ongoing problems in multitude for the overall common interest of the country’s people.
(Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines, in Frankfurt, Germany writes from New York, USA).
