Dhaka’s Terror Attacks
By Amrita Banerjee
It’s been a bloody month. First, Bangladesh endured its own Mumbailike suicide attack when heavily armed terrorists targeted a bakery frequented by foreigners in Dhaka’s plush diplomatic quarter last fortnight. They held them hostage and later savagely tortured and butchered 20 people, including a young Indian woman, sparing only those who could recite Quran verses.
Second, terrorists wounding and killing hundreds in US’s Orlando, third Istanbul and recently in Baghdad where a bomb killed over 200 people in a shopping area buzzing with families who had just broken their Ramzan fasts. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for many and is prime suspect in others.
Undoubtedly, for a majority of Muslims worldwide, violence is completely dissonant with the holy month, which entails fasting, spiritual renewal and prayer with family and friends. But unfortunately the IS follows a perverted ideology as they believe Ramzan is in fact the opportune time to kill infidels. Indeed, such terrorists killing innocents in the name of religion, that too during the Ramzan month are nothing but brute savages who do not understand any religion whatsoever.
Notably, one reason for the IS attacks in faraway locations is because it is facing military setbacks in and around the so-called ‘caliphate’, the seat of its influence. Thus, it wants to export terrorism to other countries so as to stay ‘relevant’ and find more recruits.
Also, it aims to fight against the civilisational values of the modern world. By attacking innocents, unarmed public especially foreigners it wants to create panic in free and open societies, break their social cohesion and then reap dividends.
Though Dhaka insisted the café massacre was instigated by local Islamist fundamentalists, Indian and western intelligence agencies confirmed that the attack was mounted by the Bangladeshi module of IS led by Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif with foreigners as the main target.
However, Dhaka denied IS on its soil instead insisted that the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was responsible. In fact, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan even went to the extent of saying that the terrorists were well educated Bangladeshis belonging to affluent families exploring the possibility of ‘an international link’. Adding Pakistan’s ISI, not IS was behind Dhaka’s attack.
Whether or not the IS was involved in the attack will be established soon but this conscious targeting of foreigners appears geared to exacerbate the conflict between the State Establishment and extremist forces which have waged a bitter and bloody battle.
Undeniably, the Sheikh Hasina Government’s counter-terrorism policies will be under international pressure now. This sort of scrutiny does occasionally help as with the Lashkar-eToiba after the Mumbai attacks, when the Pakistani Establishment was forced to rein in the violence if not the group’s infrastructure. Alas Hasina’s Government has nowhere that kind of leverage as many Islamist groups are relentlessly challenging her Administration’s authority. Wherein, terrorists have launched several brutal and violent attacks on bloggers, atheist activists, publishers, Hindus, Shias and foreigners. The mushrooming of radical Islamists has added to the terrorist activity over the last year.
More perplexing, is that terrorists unlike their earlier impoverished and rural origin now come from well educated and affluent backgrounds. Also, they have changed their modus operandi over time which can be easily understood vis-à-vis the place and targets they choose to attack.
Remember, the Holey Artisan Bakery was a popular hangout for expatriates and rich locals because of its good food and leafy garden in Dhaka’s toniest neighbourhood which boasted of being the only artisan bakery ‘between Mumbai and Singapore’. Besides, the misuse of the internet by terror groups is yet another dismal reality about globalization. There have been a series of Indian intelligence inputs that a large number of Bangladeshis have been radicalized and indoctrinated by the IS over the internet.
Clearly, terrorism is the new menacing reality of the 21st Century globalised world which knows no borders and aims at people regardless of the country, age, gender, religion and beliefs. Worse, the IS threat today lurks at India’s doors wherein Indian intelligence experts predict that it’s possible that some extremists might flee Bangladesh to escape the crackdown as India shares a porous border with it.
Another possibility is that the suave, educated and sophisticated terrorists who are part of Dhaka’s attack might use the air, rail or road route along-with fake passports to enter West Bengal from Bangladesh. The Indian security forces led by the BSF are on high alert to cope with a crackdown on militants.
The Sheikh Hasina Government needs to wake up because Bangladesh is one country where both the IS and al Qaeda seem to be competing. Whereby, extremism and terrorism are almost impossible to tackle in Bangladesh as they themselves are a product of the deep dysfunction in the country’s politics and State institutions.
Created by a bloody civil war in 1971, Bangladesh has a violent political culture and gridlocked politics dominated by two warring Parties according to the International Crisis Group. Further, it has extremely partisan State structures whereby institutions like civil servants, police and judiciary are manned or manipulated by Party faithfuls.
Hasina’s Government is opposed to violent Islamists but it has also presided over widespread repression of Opposition Parties like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. This alongside the partisan nature of the criminal justice system has bred alienation and enhanced the appeal of extremist organizations and terror groups. Furthermore, as a politically freighted bureaucracy is too invested in the continuation of a regime and prone to overreach, Hasina’s Administration has cracked down on the media and sections of civil society thereby further undermining its legitimacy. In sum, Bangladesh is experiencing a crisis of public institutions of which terrorism is one manifestation. The focus now will be on finding the conspirators but the country desperately needs a new form of politics and a sequence of steps that will manage social tensions.
Presently, this sounds like wishful thinking but the truth is that the Hasina Government cannot counter extremism unless it fixes State institutions. The need of the hour is to raise security operations to a higher standard and strengthen cooperation among other countries in fighting terrorist groups, provide harsher punishment by courts and establish a strict and broader security system in public places.
It’s high time that the 57 Muslim countries globally and different Islamic organizations come forward to act against these heinous crimes. All countries should snap their sympathetic ties with these brutal terror groups. As the recurrent terrorist attacks underscores the need to counter terror unitedly. Terrorism is a global concern and so the response has to be collective too! —– INFA (The writer is Research Scholar, JNU)