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| Together against jihadi terror | | | Anirban R Banerjee
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Bangladesh soon. It will be a good occasion for both New Delhi and Dhaka to strengthen bilateral ties and particularly work closer to tackle the growing Islamist menace
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is
likely to visit Bangladesh in the first week of June. India's ratification of the land boundary agreement of 1974 with Bangladesh through the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013, is seen as major neighbourhood policy success of the Modi Government. The resolution of this contentious issue is expected to bring upsurge in India-Bangladesh relationship. Geo-politics of the sub-continent, Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia is critical to India. The region is a theatre of significant powerplay for China, Pakistan and the US. Great Game East by Bertil Lintner gives significant insights on the evolving dangers and power equations of the region. Sheikh Hasina leads the Awami League Government, a moderate Islamic regime willing to cooperate with India. Her opposition is the grand alliance of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and militant Islamic parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Islamic Oikya Jote and the Hefazat-e-Islam. These influential Wahhabi parties, mentored by Pakistan, are keen to alter the domestic power equation in Bangladesh. In February 2014, a military coup plot by a section of the Bangladesh Army said to be sympathetic to radical Islamic forces, came out in the open after telephonic conversations between Mahmudur Rahman Manna's conversation with a senior leader of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Sadek Hossain Khoka, and a former Army officer became public.
The country has been gripped by political unrest since early January 2014, that led to the death of more than 130 people, The Jel has particularly singled out Bengali Hindus as the target of such violence. The JeI is a Wahhabi political group with close ties to Pakistan and the Saudi Wahhabi establishment. The Jamaat was part of the ruling alliance in Bangladesh in the Khaleda Zia-led BNP regime. The JeI is considered a 'state within the state' and an 'economy within the economy' in Bangladesh. It has substantial share in Bangladesh's banking, insurance, transport, education, healthcare, print and electronic media, information technology, and pharmaceutical sectors.
According to reports by the Government in Dhaka, the Jamaat-e-Islami's net annual profit was around $280 million in 2013, with its links to Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistani and globaljihadi groups. The scale of the Jel's anti-India terror operations can be gauged from the 2004 case, where 10 truckloads of ammonia were intercepted, along with a total of 4,930 different types of sophisticated firearms. Rahman Nizami of the Jel, a Cabinet Minister in the Khaleda Zia Government, was found to be involved in the incident.
The Jamaat-e-Islami's support forjihadis can be gleaned from its slogan, "Amra sobai hobo Taliban Bangle hobe Afghanistan" (we will all become Taliban and we turn Bengal into Afghanistan). In an interview to the Sunday Express in March 2014, Abdul Razak, the Jamaat's leader, said there was nothing wrong in Bangladesh becoming a pure Islamic state and the party aiming to establish an Islamic Caliphate in West Bengal-Assam-Bangladesh by driving out the non-Muslims. The Islamist organisations aim to re-establish a pure form of Islamic rule (ummat al-Islamiyah). According to a senior Minister of Bangladesh, the JeI is organising covert terrorist networks under various names, and recruits were sent to terrorist camps in Pakistan for training.
The killing of Avijit Roy, the US-based writer of Bangladeshi origin, in Dhaka in February, is a grim reminder of the role such Islamists have played since the 1970s. Eliza Griswold's article in The New York Times shows the rapid growth of Islamist militancy and Bangladesh as fertile grounds for radical terror groups to take root and flourish. Bangladesh became an Islamic State in 1988 during General Husain Mohammed Ershad's rule, though from 1975 the Government of Bangladesh under General Ziaur Rehman had started the process of ethnic cleansing and Islamisation. Active support from Pakistan, the flow of Saudi funding, and most significant, the policy paralysis in India over the last one decade had provided the opportunity for such growth. India had been giving little attention to the evolving threat and had failed to act.
Dhaka is aware of the dangers of rise of militant Islam and its subversive role in India. Bangladesh has refrained from signing a deal with China to develop a deep water port at Sonadia near Cox's Bazar, keeping in mind India's sensitivities. China has offered $5 billion for construction of this port. Reports suggest that the proposal was very much on the Ms Hasina's agenda during her recent visit to China in June 2014, but she has as of now refrained from signing an MoU in view of the security sensitivities that India harbours. India has proposed an anti-terror pact envisaging a structured mechanism for updates on information related to terrorist groups. India's Home Secretary has handed over a list of 39 terrorist camps run by various groups operating out of Bangladesh. This will give India an opportunity to contain the groups of the North-East and the activities of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami and other similar 30 other organisations.
India is also concerned at growing incidents of violence against Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a bold and pragmatic step to engage with Bangladesh to combat the growth of militant Islamist groups. India and Bangladesh can play a significant role in combatingjihadi terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. This is a historic moment, the most significant since 1971, where India is leading the initiative against terrorism and shaping the future of South Asia by providing opportunity for economic growth and development of the region.
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