A Rush Of Blood

Violence is a frequent visitor to Bangladesh. Its birth in 1971 had been through a particularly sanguinary civil war. Long spells of street demonstrations, state brutality and genocide and an India-Pakistan war had preceded its emergence as a new nation from the charred remains of East Pakistan. But the violence did not stop there. In the last four-and-a-half decades, not unlike its neighbours, Bangladesh has witnessed assassinations of two of its presidents, several political leaders and the violent deaths of hundreds of its citizenry. However, foreigners visiting or working in the country had largely remained unt­­ouched. That seems to be changing now.

On September 28, Cesare Tavella, an Ita­­lian working as the regional head of a Netherlands aid agency, was shot dead in  Gulshan, the diplomatic area of Dhaka, by unidentified gunmen. Before people could recover from the shocking news, five days later, a Japanese national, Kunio Hoshi, who worked with an agency on advanced farming techniques, was gun­ned down by unidentified assailants in Rangpur, 330 km away from the capital. More recently, a Bangladeshi pas­­tor was attacked with knives by a group of micreants. Though he managed to escape with his life, the attacks have spread panic among Bangladeshis and the large number of foreign nationals living there.

The new terror had a ready claimant—the Islamic State (ISIS)—who posted statements on Twitter to take credit for both killings. The US-based site Inte­lligence Group, which monitors online activities of radical Islamic groups, cor­ro­borated ISIS’s claim of responsibility.

But many are sceptical about an ISIS hand. The most vocal doubter happens to be the Ban­g­ladesh government, which is keen to pin the blame on the opposition BNP and its ally, the radical Islamist Jam­aat-e-Islami, an acc­usation den­­ied by the BNP. Though people are uns­­­ure about who to blame for the att­­a­­­­cks or even their probable cause, Dhaka’s air swirls with conspiracy theories.

“Islamic fundamentalists who are  now under increasing pressure from the She­ikh Hasina government are perhaps trying to destabilise the regime through these attacks,” says Pinak Chakravarty, India’s former high commissioner to Bangladesh. But it’s a surmise, and he quickly adds, “We don’t know for sure, since the investigations are on.”

The killing of the foreigners and the attack on the pastor comes in the wake of rising influence of Islamic fun­­damentalist groups in Bangladesh. As evident in the ruthless murders of secular bloggers in the recent past, the liberal narrative of Bangladeshis has been put to a severe test. Frighteningly for most, the killings have not taken place in remote villages in the dead of night. Most took place in public places in populous cities, in markets, busy streets, near book fairs, in the presence of people.

This recent spree of public executions have not only called attention to the attackers’ audacity, but also highlighted the reluctance of the majority to intervene and stop such incidents.

The victims, Kunio Hoshi and Cesare Tavella

At the political level, the seeming regularity with which the attacks have been occurring comes at a time when the ruling Awami League has launched a hard-no­sed drive to marginalise Islamists. Has­­ina has put a number of Jamaat lea­d­ers on trial for alleged human rights abu­­­­ses during Bangladesh’s liberation str­­uggle. Several of them have been given the death penalty, with a few more on death row. For obvious reasons, Hasina’s government and her supporters see Jamaat’s hand behind these killings. “BNP and Jamaat definitely abetted the two killings in their attempt to undermine Bangladesh’s positive achievements in recent years,” Hasina has stated.

Of course, such charges were refuted vigorously. “Jamaat-e-Islami has no involvement with the recent murders of the foreigners,” says Hamidur Rahman, its central executive committee member.  “Immediately after the murders, Jamaat demanded a proper investigation into the murders and exemplary punishment for the killers.” In fact, he insists the foreigners’ murders yet again exposes the government’s failure to secure the lives and properties of its citizens.

Interestingly, though many outside experts are not yet ruling out the possibility of an ISIS involvement, the government and most Bangladeshi security exp­­erts see it as an attempt to divert the focus from those actually responsible.

“The group is neither present in the country nor did it carry out any of the two killings,” Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Bangladesh’s home minister, told mediapersons recently. He added, “Some people with vested interest organised these two killings to create instability.”

But the US ambassador in Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat, said that her gov­­ern­ment has “taken seriously” the cla­­ims of responsibility by the ISIS, and  was trying to ascertain if the claims were accurate.

On Tuesday, foreign diplomats, UN officials and representatives of other agencies attended a meeting in Dhaka where they were briefed by senior government ministers and officials about the security situation in the country  and assured of their safety.

The death of the Italian and Japanese nationals has raised, perhaps inevitably, serious apprehensions about security among foreigners. The Australian cricket team has already cal­led off their Bangladesh tour and there are widespread concerns that the recent wave of Islamist violence and the thickening of radical influence will also impact Bangladesh in other sectors, particularly the economy, in the coming days.

“We are imploring the government to take immediate steps to ensure the security of foreigners which (will) boost confidence for increased FDI in Bang­ladesh,” said recent a Dhaka Chamber of Commerce statement, reflecting the prevailing mood among the country’s business class. One major concern is over the $25.5 billion garment industry—the lifeline of the country’s economy. Already, there are indications that buyers who visit the country at this time of the year have called off their trips. Equally importantly, many tourists to Bangladesh have also decided to either cancel their trips or put them off indefinitely after the deaths of Tavella and Hoshi, and the purported ISIS threat against foreigners in Bangladesh.

Some sections of the government feel that radical elements from the Bang­­l­a­deshi diaspora in the UK and elsewhere have also been active in the country and could have played a role in some of the killings. The fact that some of them have been arrested in Bangladesh while a few others were found to have direct links with the ISIS network have really disconcerted many Bangladeshis.

While the tussle for supremacy bet­ween the ruling Awami League and its opponents in the BNP and Jamaat continues apace, there is little doubt about the degree of virulent radicalisation India’s eastern neighbour and one of the world’s largest Muslim nations is witnessing.