Cover Story

Dancing with the Devil

Fingers are being pointed to members of the ruling coalition for harbouring terrorists who are killing and maiming innocent people in the name of Islam. With the next general elections in the offing howcapable is the government of carrying out the country's own war on terror?

Ahmede Hussain

November 29. Gazipur courthouse. At around 9:45 a young man, of a small wiry build, walked up the ground floor of Gazipur courthouse with a bag in hand. Within a minute a ball of fire leapt up to the ceiling of the hall building as the man detonated a bomb, killing himself along with seven others. The youth, who was later identified as Abdur Razzak, had made his small grisly place in history as Bangladesh's first suicide bomber.

Within a minute Razzak died and left the trails of his beastly act behind: Lawyers, who were preparing the day's case with their clients, tried to run out of the pandemonium, but their legs seemed to have betrayed them. Some tumbled over the debris; others, with a burned leg or a broken arm, managed through the mayhem. Blobs of flesh were seen on the wall of the room, limbs and body parts of the injured were strewn across the grimy floor amid charred furniture and two twisted ceiling fans.

On that fateful day Mohammad Sultan, a farmer, went to the court to consult his lawyer about a long-standing land dispute case. "I was taking a stroll when I heard a big bang and, turning round, I saw a column of smoke gush out from the library," he says. Sultan left the room only a minute before the blast.

But others were not so lucky. At the entrance to the Chittagong court building Abul Bashar, another suicide bomber, brushed past the doorway where twenty-eight-year old Rajib Barua, a police constable, was getting briefed. A few yards away Bashar blew up a bomb strapped to his thigh: his torso heaved 50 meters up and the lower part of his body turned and twisted by the impact in mid-air as he fell to the ground. The youth, in his late teens, survived for 48 hours but in his way to "martyrdom" killed two and maimed 20 more innocent people.

The wreckage left by November 14th's apparent suicide bombing. Among the dead were two senior judges

Of the injured, Rajib Barua is fighting for life in the Chittagong Medical College Hospital. "My son came and told me that he had been posted to Dhaka; I blessed him, wishing every success in his new posting. But how was I to know that something like this was going to happen?" Shimul Barua, Rajib's elderly father says.

No one knows the answer in a country where every ordinary citizen's life is at stake.

Both the attacks bore the hallmarks of Jamiatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB), a banned outfit which wants to establish a Taliban-styled regime in the country. In fact, in a note tucked into his pocket, the Chittagong suicide bomber had described himself as a Fedayee, Arabic for the one who devotes himself to Allah. "It is a primary warning message from a dedicated Mujahideen for the forces deployed for the judges' security. We will continue our Jihadi mission until establishing an Islamic welfare state," the note continued.

The JMB's self-styled spiritual leader Maulana Abdur Rahman, who studied at Medina

A leaflet found in a suicide bomber's pocket, sending out JMB's warning message

University in Saudi Arabia, claims that the outfit was formed in 1998. However, the group came under the spotlight in 2004; the JMB has made three front organisations named Mujaheedin Alliance Council, Islami Jalsha and Muslim Rakkha Mujaheedin Oikko Parishad.

The group reportedly has a three-tier organisation. The first tier, known as Eshar, has an unspecified number of members; Eshars are all full-timers and maintain direct links with the seven-member Majlis-e-Shura (Central committee). The second tier, called Gayeri Eshar, has 10,000 members, Bangla Bhai once claimed in an interview. The lowest tier of the group involves those who indirectly assist the group.

Crippling the country's modern secular judiciary is the so-called JMB's prime objective it seems, for within 48 hours after the gruesome twin bombings, another JMB member was arrested while trying to make his way through the district commissioner's office in downtown Gazipur.

On November 14, two JMB members, in an apparent suicide mission, killed two senior judges in the northern Jhalakathi town. Two months before this ghastly attack on the country's judicial system, "as a warning", the extremist group planted 459 bombs across the country. In a leaflet left near the blast scenes, the group called for a quick establishment of the Sharia law.

It indeed took the government longer than usual to accept the idea that religious extremism does exist in the country. It is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Four-Party Alliance (FPA) that had been vigorous in denying the presence of zealots in the country. The history of the BNP's denial and a string of unabated extremist activities date

Bangla Bhai, still at large, still spreading terror

back to March 6, 1999 when first such blast killed 10 cultural activists in Jessore at the annual gathering of the Udichi, a cultural organisation. Since the Jessore blast, the BNP had been rubbishing claims made by local and international media that Islamist outfits were, in fact, engaged in violent activities to usurp the country's democratic polity.

In the run up to the 2001 general elections, bombs ripped through different public places across the country more frequently. Though in its five-year term in the office the Awami League (AL) failed to nab the masterminds behind the blasts, the party leaders laid the blame at the door of the BNP, who formed an alliance with two religious parties, namely Jamaat (JI) and Islamic Oikko Jote (IOJ).

The BNP-led FPA eventually won the elections, and the first blasts in its term took place on December 21, 2002 at four movie theatres in Mymensingh. Khaleda Zia was quick to find the perpetrators: "It is the act of those who are making anti-Bangladesh campaign at home and abroad," she said. The centre of Khaleda's diatribe was AL-chief Sheikh Hasina, who only a few days ago told a European audience in Brussels that sympathisers of Al-Qaeda were ruling Bangladesh.

In fact, up until the Gazipur twin blasts, when it came to curbing extremism the BNP had pursued a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde policy.

The infamous Siddiqul Islam alias Azizur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai who would later unleash a reign of terror in northeastern Bangladesh was arrested once while trying to launch an attack on Topon Poddar, an AL leader. But the thug was subsequently freed and later formed Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), which grouped its members in 10 camps in Baghmara, Raninagar, Naldanga, Singra and Atrai.

Though independent media portrayed the JMJB as the armed wing of the JMB, a section in the government through some state machinery actively supported Bangla Bhai who started to slaughter citizens across the northern and northeastern parts of the country. Noor Mohammad, divisional inspector general of police, told the Daily Star on 4 May 2004, that Bangla Bhai and his men were helping the police maintain law and order. "We have asked different police stations to support them whenever they (JMJB men) go to catch outlaws.

The JMB has threatened to kill police personnel who are giving protection to judges

You know that the Shorboharas (left-wing extremists) have been quite active for many years and it is not possible for the undermanned and ill-equipped police force to hunt them down. Aziz is helping us," he said.

BNP's joint secretary of Baghmara unit, Besharat Ullah endorsed the JMJB's killing operations by addressing the JMJB's first public rally.

A part of the BNP-led FPA did not change its unwavering support to the JMJB when newspapers ran gruesome reports carrying photographs of men hanging from a tree upside down, tortured to death by Bangla Bhai's boys. The photographs had prompted the government to launch a mockery of a drive to arrest the infamous operations commander of the JMB. On May 27, 2004, Noagaon police sought the media's support to nab Bangla Bhai. The notorious criminal who had already killed and maimed hundreds, on the other hand, seemed to be readily accessible to the press: in an interview published in local dailies he said that "three ministers and a BNP lawmaker" had assigned him to launch an "anti-outlaw operation" in the northeast.

Such help by the same coteries, in fact, continues even after the JMB has claimed responsibility for countrywide simultaneous blasts. In one instance, on November 27, a desperate deputy minister from Rajshahi, called the police to release Mahtab Ali Khamaru, a JMB cadre, who, according to police sources was behind the killing of three suspected Purba Banglar Communist Party activists. Before his arrest Mahtab had boasted several times to the press that the police would not be able to "keep him for long" as the deputy minister was behind him. His claims have reportedly turned out to be correct. According to newspaper reports, three BNP MPs, Aminul Haque, Fazlur Rahman Potol and Ruhul Kuddus Dulu opposed the police actions against JMJB saying the outfit was on a "pro-people mission" freeing the northern region of left- wing extremists.

The JMJB and JMB activities in the country, meanwhile, continued unabated. On January 30 this year, the groups circulated a leaflet in Rajshahi calling for Muslims to prepare for a holy war. "The groups committed to jihad, like in many other countries, had flourished in Bangladesh as well to fight the conspiracies of Kafirs and to retain the glory of Muslims," the leaflet titled 'Qurbani and Jihad Fi Sabilillah' declared. No one was arrested.

Under increasing pressure from international donors to clamp down on these Jihadi outfits, the government banned the JMB and JMJB on February 23 for engaging in "subversive activities". Muhammad Asadullah al-Ghalib, professor of Arabic at Rajshahi University and a

Victims of bomb blasts in hospital

leader of a shadowy Ahale Hadith Bangladesh, was subsequently arrested. But the spiritual leader of the JMB proved out to be a tough nut to crack: Ghalib did not disclose any significant clue regarding his accomplices; the professor is still in jail. Two photographs of Abdur Rahman, head of the JMB and, and Bangla Bhai were circulated through the media. Though the government has made a promise to give "huge cash rewards" to anyone who can provide the law enforcers with any significant clue regarding these two terrorists, both the men are at large.

Except for providing mere lip service, the government did not take any cut-and-dried step to nip the terror in the bud. On the contrary, five days later the government slapped a ban on the groups, the Daily Star ran an investigative report that exposed another government official's help in JMJB activities. With the help of eyewitness accounts and a special government report it showed that Masud Mia, the superintendent of Rajshahi police, used his office to help Bangla Bhai flee, even after the prime minister herself had ordered his arrest.

The FPA leaders, at the same time, are going on with the same old claptrap. Khaleda Zia in a long-overdue statement has condemned terrorism asking the public not to heed to the zealots. She, however, has got a bunch of colleagues who have earned a good deal of notoriety for coming up with antithetic statements about religious extremism.

"There is a conspiracy going on to prevent Islamic revolution in the name of taming militancy," Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini, a leader of the IOJ, told a public meeting in Mymensingh on August 25, a day after Ghalib was arrested.

"The government has launched the crackdown in line with the US. The main opposition has also provoked the donor agencies to take this anti-Bangladesh and anti-Islamic stance," Mufti Abdur Sattar Akon, a Jamaat MP reacting to the ban imposed on the JMB and JMJB told the Daily Star on the same day.

The debris of terror: The library hall of the Gazipur court building after the ghastly attack

Akon's boss, the JI chief Matiur Rahman Nizami's stance is even stranger. "Bangla Bhai does not exist in reality, it is a creation of the media," he said when the marauding criminal was butchering people in the name of hunting down left-wing insurgents. Nizami remained the Devil's advocate even after terrorists planted 459 bombs across the country. According to a BBC report he pinned the crime on the Research and Analysis Wing of the Indian Secret Service.

Nizami, who himself actively opposed Bangladesh's liberation war by forming paramilitia Al-Badr, came up with another theory when terror struck in Gazipur. In an in interview with ATN, a local TV channel, Nizami, who is also the Industries Minister, accused the independent media for fomenting terrorism by highlighting incidents of militant activities.

The party summarily denies involvement whenever the press comes up with the JI members' involvement with the JMB; the JI remained silent when newspapers ran Bangla Bhai's interview where he declared that till 1995, he was a member of Islami Chatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of the JI. Ghalib, the militant guru, also turned out to be a former member of the ICS. Newspapers have found Moulana Washiqur Rahman, a Satkhira JI leader, to be a JMB ideologue. Abdul Khaleq Mondal, the JI MP of the area described him as a supporter, but locals beg to differ: "…Rahman, who has been on the run since the countrywide serial blasts, was always the host to militant kingpin Bangla Bhai or other JMB top brass whenever they visited the area… Locals said that Washiqur has a very close personal relationship with the local Jamaat lawmaker and if the people should meet Khaleq Mondal they have to go through Washiqur," the report said.

The latest trend of suicide bombings has made the job of fighting terror all the more daunting

Local and national BNP leaders, too, cannot avert accusation of indulging the extremists. A few weeks ago the party sacked Abu Hena, an MP elected from Baghmara constituency, for washing the party's dirty laundry out in the open. "Islamic militancy started to spread in Bangladesh soon after Jamaat-e-Islami had come to power, riding on the BNP. The militants in fact did not exist four years ago," Hena has told newspapers. He has categorically named Aminul Haque, the telecommunications minister, as a closet Jamaati, saying some BNP MPs in connivance with the JI and IOJ are helping the militants get a free hand.

Hena's comments have opened a whole new Pandora's Box. Col Oli Ahmed, a former minister and BNP MP, denounced Hena's expulsion, terming it as unfortunate. Mosharraf Hossain, a BNP whip in the parliament, has bombarded the headquarters by describing some of his colleagues in the FPA for acting as JMB's stooges.

In the wake of repeated media reports that the JI and IOJ have links with the militants, the BNP high command has now made it a policy decision to defend the JI. Like the way a zealous mother would guard her peerless scion, the BNP is trying to fend off any possible threat to JI's politics. "Anti-Jamaat forces are planting bombs to undermine the coalition government," Nazmul Huda, senior BNP leader and communications minister, said.

The history of the BNP's reliance on religion as a political tool to woo the masses goes back to its birth. Since its formation the party gave shelter to a wide array of politicians: from dormant fundamentalists to frustrated Maoists, Gen Ziaur Rahman had a place for everyone in his newly founded party. In fact it was Zia who lifted the ban on the JI and like-minded fundamentalist groups, who had been banned for collaborating with Pakistani occupation forces during Bangladesh's liberation war. Zia dumped socialism and secularism from the constitution and harboured religious-- at time fanatical elements-- of the society.

Law enforcers are trying to beef up security everywhere but will it be enough?

Lt Gen Ershad seized power in a bloodless coup in the aftermath of Zia's death and later formed his own party; Ershad followed Zia's footstep very firmly: whenever the dictator brewed a problem, he resorted to use religion to cling on to power. Ershad made Islam the state religion, and it was during his vile and corrupt rule that Jamaat's call to establish "Allah's law and good people's administration" gained strong foothold in some small pockets in the Bangladeshi hinterland.

In 1991, in the first general elections after the restoration of democracy, the BNP surprised everyone by winning 140 seats. It formed a majority government with the help of the JI. In the run up to the 1996 elections, the JI formed an alliance with the AL to oust the then BNP government. The AL eventually ditched the JI and with everyone fighting their own battle the JI that won 18 seats in 1991 failed miserably to win even the expected number of seats. The BNP, without the help of JI and IOJ, lost a significant number of seats to the AL that later formed the government. As far as the paradigm of votes were concerned, the elections had shown that the BNP would never go to power alone without the help of small fringes of religious parties like Jamaat. Thus a marriage of convenience was formed between the BNP and the JI, both knowing that each of them would be indispensable to the other. In the 2001 general elections the BNP made alliance with the JI and IOJ and their combined alliance got 46 percent of the total vote. In the same elections the AL bagged 41 percent vote, which means if the BNP and the JI fight the next elections alone, chances are high that both the parties will lose a large number of marginal seats to the AL. This equation, along with the government's failure in almost every sector, has made the BNP jittery and puts BNP's apparent goodwill to curb fanaticism into question. With the general elections looming over the horizon only time can tell if the BNP is capable of sincerely curbing religious extremism, an act that may irk its two major allies.

Lawyers (right) and Communist Party members came out on the streets in protest of the bomb attacks in Jhalakathi, Chittagong and Gazipur

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