EDITORIALS

Bangladesh: Whose Unfinished Revolution?

New radical groups have merged which cannot be checked by the Sheikh Hasina government.
Subir Bhaumik writes:

awrence Lifschultzs 1979 classic Bangladesh: Unfinished

Revolution predicted a final confrontation between the
forces of secular, linguistic nationalism and radical
Islam. Within four years of independence from Pakistan in
8

1971, the bloody coup that killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and
much of his family was followed by a fresh Pakistanisation of
Bangladesh under military rulers. Much of the ideology of a
liberal, secular state was undone in 21 years of military rule.
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Sheikh Hasina failed to reverse this process during her brief

tenure (19962001) and the situation went from bad to worse
during Khaleda Zias second term (200106). Islamist radicals
created by the Bengali veterans of the Afghan jihad had a free
run with direct patronage from powerful people. The
Pakistan-backed Jamaat-e-Islami, whose supporters killed and
massacred thousands, was in government for the first time in
independent Bangladesh. That helped them advance the cause
of an Islamist Bangladesh with reunification with Pakistan not
a possibility.
Exasperated with jihadi excesses (serial bombings in 60 districts) and military rule with a civilian caretaker faade, the
people voted the Awami League back to power in December
2008 with an overwhelming majority. One of Hasinas election
commitments was to start war crime trials against killers and
collaborators of 1971. The executions that followed the trials of
senior Jamaat and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders
resulted in an existential crisis for the Islamist opposition. Hasinas return to power was followed by more executions. Having
failed to unseat Hasina, the BNPJamaat combine launched a
six-month street agitation, fire-bombing buses, derailing trains
and attacking secular figures resulting in the deaths of at least
86 people. As Hasina crushed her opponents by determined police action and political mobilisation, there was a surge in jihadi
activitiesattacks on bloggers, writers, publishers and even a
professor who sought to popularise Baul music. First-generation
jihadis, veterans of the Afghan jihad who returned to form
groups like HUJI (Harkat ul-Jihad-i-Islami), attacked poet
Shamshur Rahman and writer Humayun Azad. There is a clear
continuity in the pattern of violence. The targeting is more political now to unsettle the DelhiDhaka relationship. Foreigners
have been killed to scare investors and buyers of garments from
Bangladesh to cripple the economy, while attacks on minorities
aim at creating a Bangladesh without non-Muslims (who are the
most loyal to the Awami League).
The new generation of Bangladesh jihadis is smarter and
tech-savvy. They prefer to listen to evangelists like Zakir Naik
or Islamic State (IS) chief Al Baghdadi instead of Jamaat leader
Delawar Hossain Sayadee. Their obvious target is the murtad

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(apostate) government of Hasina, described as a lackey of

Hindu India. Dhakas relations with Islamabad are at an alltime low. Two Pakistani diplomats and some non-diplomats
have been expelled on charges of funding jihadi groups with
fake currency. Bangladesh has threatened to review its diplomatic relations with Pakistan after its criticism of executions of
war criminals and threats to take the issue to the United Nations. The Bangladesh police recently launched a nationwide
crackdown against Islamist radicals. More than 14,000 suspects
were nabbed in a week. The opposition claimed that Hasina was
trying to decimate her political rivals to create a one-party
state. She was compared to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt where
security forces that had once defended the secular ideals of
Nasser and Sadat turned that country into a police state.
Without doubting Hasinas democratic credentials, the capabilities of her police and intelligence services are clearly found
wanting in tackling the latest wave of Islamist radicalism. While
one set of radicals had operated with the support or those in the
BNPJamaat coalition government, a second generation of
Islamist radicals has emerged. These groups are better trained
and equipped with support from Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). New groups like Ansarullah Bangla Team, Hizb-urTahrir or the Islamic State of Bangladesh (ISB) operate on a decentralised basis run by leaders who do not expose themselves
to the footsoldiers. In Bangladesh, the Islamist radical forces are
now regrouped and reorganised into two main groupsone
connected with the IS and the other to al-Qaeda in the Indian
Subcontinent (AQIS). Traditional Islamist groups like Jamaat ulMujahideen Bangladesh and HUJI have made place to the two
new organisations which do not differ from one another ideologically but which are organised on two elongated cell structures, operating with proper cut-outs and on a need-to-know
basis to avoid major damage to the organisations in the event
of arrests of particular individuals. This has made it all the more
difficult for Sheikh Hasinas government to check the recent
waves of violence in Bangladesh.
Subir Bhaumik (sbhaum@gmail.com) is an author and senior editor
at bdnews24.com.