Democracy In Terror

On August 21, 2004, the main opposition party, the Awami League (AL), leader and former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped an attempt on her life. The incident, ironically, took place immediately after she wrapped up a rally of around 25,000 supporters protesting the recent Sylhet blasts, with a call "to end the rule of the government that inspires bomb attacks." 

18 Awami League supporters were killed in the attack, and over 200, including several senior party leaders, were injured when the grenades started raining down from the top of a building facing the AL headquarters. Among the senior leaders seriously injured were Abdur Razzak, Amir Hossain Amu, Suranjit Sengupta, Ivy Rahman and Kazi Zafarullah. One of Sheikh Hasina's personal security staff, Mahbub Alam, who was standing close by her, was also killed in the incident. 

The "unidentified assailants" fired seven bullets at the bulletproof sports utility vehicle (SUV) that Hasina boarded immediately after the blasts.

This is only the latest in a continuous succession of violent incidents that has occurred since the four-party right wing ruling alliance came to power in October 2001. The targets of most of these attacks have been progressive intellectuals, journalists and senior opposition leaders. 

Against a backdrop of rising Islamist fundamentalist and extremist activity in the country, and increasing evidence of a rising trade in small arms, the ruling coalition has been consistent in its inaction, its efforts to shield the guilty, and to block access to information regarding all such cases.

There is a pattern in the violence that suggests that the Islamists, some of whom are part of the ruling coalition, are now systematically exploiting the bitter rivalry between the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the main opposition party, the AL, to further their hidden agenda. 

The government headed by BNP leader Khalida Zia has, however, lost no time after many such incidents in laying the blame at the AL's door. In every such incident the government has sought to project a 'conspiracy angle' involving the AL, while right wing and radical Islamists perpetrators are shielded.

Though the groups responsible for the latest attack on Sheikh Hasina are yet to be identified, it is useful to review some of the incidents of violence targeting political leaders and intellectuals in year 2004:

April 2: Sheikh Hasina came under attack by BNP activists in Barisal. At least 11 leaders and workers of AL units were injured by the attackers, who also assault some journalists.

March 15: Industrial units owned by Abdul Mannan, who had resigned from the BNP and joined the 'alternative political stream' proposed by former President Badruddoza Chowdhury were attacked by suspected activists of the ruling BNP.

March 11: Badruddoza Chowdhury, along with some other like minded leaders tried to launch his 'third political stream' in a rally at Dhaka, where alleged BNP activists aided by the police attack him and his supporters. Several hundred people were reportedly injured in the incident and the rally was disrupted.

February 27: Suspected Islamist extremists stab prominent writer Humayun Azad in front of the Bangla Academy in capital Dhaka. Azad, a Professor of Bangla at the Dhaka University, was allegedly threatened by the extremists for the launch of his latest work 'Pak Sar Zamin Saad Baad' in November 2003.

February 26: BNP activists attack Sheikh Hasina's motorcade at Charkawa ferry ghat in Barisal town while she was proceeding to address a rally.

February 23: Assailants, allegedly belonging to the pro-government Parbatya Samo Adhikar Andolan, attack the vehicle of Gano Forum President Kamal Hossain in Kaukhali sub-district.

Over the past week, Islamists have also been involved in a programme of mass mobilization across the country. One prong of attack has been an intensification of the campaign against the Ahmadiyyas. On August 13, police in Khulna thwarted attempts by a large group of Islamist extremists to destroy the Nirala Ahmadiyya mosque complex. The Islamists were reportedly supporters of the International Khatme Nabuwat Movement Bangladesh (IKNMB). 

Moulana Azizul Huq, chairman of the ruling alliance partner, the Islami Oikyo Jote (IOJ), issued an ultimatum that further delay in declaring Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims would invite the fall of the coalition government. Addressing a rally of over 30,000 people, he said, "The faithful Muslims will crush all Ahmadiyya complexes in the country if adherents of Ahmadiyya Jamaat are not officially declared non-Muslims." The local chapter of IKNMB also organized rallies at KDA Avenue and Babri Square after the Friday prayers.

A procession was also organized by Amra Dhakabasi, which later clashed with the police and attacked an Ahmadiyya Complex at Bakshibazar on August 20, demanding declaration of the sect as non-Muslim, in the run-up to their planned siege to the complex on August 27. Before staging the procession, the extremists staged a rally near the Shahi Mosjid in Chawkbazar, where the speakers warned the government that it would have to shoulder the responsibility for any untoward incident that may take place on August 27.

Islamist extremists have also carried out a sustained campaign of intimidation against the Press, and the latest link in a chain of incidents has been the demonstrations against the Bengali Daily Newspaper, Prothom Alo. Two Islamist organisations, including the IOJ, a member of the ruling coalition, staged rallies near the Chittagong office of the newspaper on August 18 in protest against what they said were "defamatory reports against Qaumi Madrasas" (unregistered Islamic seminaries).

Demanding the arrest of the daily's editor and other reporters, students of the Koumi Madrasa and the activists of IOJ asked for withdrawal of the series of reports under the headline 'Militant Activities in Greater Chittagong.' The demonstrators threatened the daily with a ban on its sale in the southeastern port city if its authorities did not apologise for carrying the reports.

The next day, thousands of teachers and students of Qaumi Madrasas demanded cancellation of the declaration (registration) of the daily Prothom Alo from a rally in Dhaka. The protestors accused the newspaper of indulging in a hate campaign against unregistered religious schools and threatened to burn down the newspaper's headquarters. 

Addressing a rally of Befakul Madaresil Arabia (the Kowmi Madrasa Board) in front of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, IOJ Chairman Fazlul Haq Amini said, "No conspiracy against Kowmi Madrasas and Islam will be tolerated." He also termed the editor and the publisher of Prothom Alo as the "agents of the American and Jewish axis" and called upon "the Muslims of Chittagong" to cripple life in the port city with protests. On August 20, the Islami Shashantantra Andolan (Islamic Constitutional Movement) in Dhaka also joined in the protests and threatened to launch an agitation if an apology was not tendered for the reports.

It is within this context that the opposition political parties, led by the Awami League, had resolved, on August 17, to launch an immediate and unified movement against the Islamist militant forces whom they held responsible for the repeated bomb attacks in the country. 

This decision was taken by the frontline leaders of the opposition parties at a round table meeting organized by the Hasanul Haq Inu faction of he Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Inu) at its office in Dhaka. They also called for a greater unity of the pro-liberation forces to fight back against the recent upsurge of Islamist extremists and terrorists. 

The Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil claimed, "In the ruling coalition, the BNP is no more the dominant factor now, but Jamaat-e-Islami is." JSD President Inu said communalism, fatwas and militant activities were pushing the country towards a bloody civil war. Its General Secretary Syed Jafar Sazzad presented the keynote paper to the roundtable, in which he questioned whether the failure to bring the extremists to account was really a failure of enforcement agencies and the administration, or whether the government was deliberately obstructing proper investigation by them. 

The keynote paper claimed that the Jamaat, by its very nature, is an armed force and had been running militant operations in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Satkhira, Rajshahi and other parts of the country. The JEI's student wing, the Islami Chattra Shibir, had seized control of many educational institutions including the Chittagong University, Rajshahi University and Islamic University through killings and other criminal activities.

There is now increasing evidence that the Islamists are ruling Bangladesh by proxy, and have secured sufficient clout to call the shots in government, though the BNP remains nominally in charge. This became obvious on January 9 this year, when the Bangladesh government was forced to ban Ahmadiyya publications. The government justified this step, stating that it was 'necessary to avoid violence and bloodshed'.

But the progressive community within Bangladesh strongly believes that this step has only encouraged the extremist factions. The Islamists now openly declare that these issues will figure prominently in the next elections and any party that does not accept the Islamist agenda cannot hope to secure power in Bangladesh. 

Anand Kumar is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict ManagementCourtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal.