Eye to eye with terror in Bangladesh

TERROR HUB: Syed Hasan Ali, a former commander of Harkat-ul-jehad-al-Islami was trained as a suicide bomber.

      

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Keywords: Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina

Over the last six years, Jamaat-E-Islami—which was part of Khaleda Zia's government—has led the growth of "traditional" Islamic Madrassas, which tend to capitalize on religious sentiments to churn out fanatics. Over 2 lakh madrassas are there in Bangladesh. Out of which the famous Baitul Mokarram in the heart of capital Dhaka is accused of harbouring radicals.

In the last 6 years, under government patronage radicals openly carried out public meetings and made their intention public turn Bangladesh into a Talibanised Afghanistan.

Hasan Ali insists that Mujahideen’s who have come back from Afghanistan are now part of Jammat. But the Jammat leaders are hardly being touched by the army-controlled interim regime in their new countrywide clean-up drive.

“Jammat Islami is the umbrella organization for most of the Islamic terror organizations in Bangladesh,” says Shariyar Kabir, Human Rights activist in Bangladesh.

“It is not enough to just take action once or twice. The action has to be sustained,” Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh said.

Sources in Bangladesh say that Islamic militant groups like HUJI have now decided to change their strategy. They now plan to operate by joining in the mainstream politics. In a meeting held in Chttagong last month, they decided to merge their party with the Jaamt e Islami, which may spells more problems for India.

Bangladesh's porous borders are being increasingly used by Pakistani militants to cross over into India. Over the last 2 years many bomb blasts across India have been blamed on Bangladeshi militants. Future perhaps has more in the offing.