Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 20, 2004
The impolitic and impolite anti-India
rant of Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Morshed Khan at a recent public
event, that too in the presence of India's High Commissioner, had
cast a long shadow over upcoming bilateral dialogue on two issues:
The first, water sharing between the two countries, of great importance
to Dhaka; and, the second, the rapid transformation of Bangladesh
into a hub and haven for Islamic terrorists with Al Qaeda links, of increasing
concern for New Delhi.
Thankfully, talks on both issues
did take place, although without achieving anything of consequence.
Nonetheless, for a change Dhaka appears to be on the back foot, especially
on the issue of the rapid "greening" of Bangladesh and its resultant
security implications for India. While there has been no public acceptance
or even acknowledgment by Dhaka of New Delhi's concerns, it is more
than likely that documentation regarding the 195 terror camps, covertly
sponsored by ISI and Al Qaeda, presented by the Indian delegation
stumped the Bangladeshis.
Indeed, in the post-9/11 world of
shared intelligence and convergence of interests among countries affected
by terrorism, Bangladesh would have to be truly brave to brush aside
the latest documentation as "baseless allegations" levelled by India. More
so because the fast-deteriorating internal security situation in Bangladesh
over which Dhaka seems to be rapidly losing control, has set off alarm
bells across the world. At a time when even the House of Saud, the
original patrons of Wahabi extremism, is marshalling forces against
Islamic terrorism, Dhaka knows it cannot get away with rhetoric and
denial.
It, therefore, does not come as
a surprise that Dhaka should have agreed to coordinated patrolling
of the 4,126 km long border between India and Bangladesh and exchanging
information regarding the movement of terrorists and criminals. Nor
does it come as a surprise that India's proposal for an extradition
treaty has not been rejected outright, or that Bangladesh is "willing to
sign an agreement" with India to enhance cooperation on security
issues.
All that, however, may just not
materialise; such public posturing by Dhaka could well have been
staged for a trans-Atlantic audience. For, the centre-right Bangladesh
Nationalist Party-fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government headed
by Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, which having sown the dragon's teeth
is now reaping a bitter harvest of political hostility, social anarchy
and religious strife, is loathe to act against the forces of evil,
much of it of foreign origin and all of it inspired by foreign dogma, that
threatens the very future of this nascent democracy.
The series of bomb explosions that
have rocked various parts of Bangladesh over the last couple of years,
coinciding with the legitimising of the Jamaat whose Wahabi brand of fundamentalist
Islam is antithetical to both Bangladeshi culture and society, and
culminating with the attempt to assassinate Awami League president and
opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed in the heart of Dhaka on August
21, along with the vigilante activism of Islamic fundamentalists spawned
by an astounding 64,000 "private" madarsas funded by Saudi "charities",
have resulted in a serious internal security crisis that signals
ominous portents for Bangladesh and cause for concern in India.
The attempt to assassinate Sheikh
Hasina Wajed during an anti-terrorism rally organised by Awami League in
Dhaka to protest the spate of bombings and other incidents of terror
unleashed by fundamentalists of various hues who share ideological
common ground with the Jamaat-e-Islami and whose battle cry - "Amra shobai
hobo Taliban, Bangla hobe Afghanistan" (We shall all become Taliban
and convert Bangladesh into Afghanistan) - has more than one endorser
in Begum Zia's Government, was an opportunity to order a countr ywide
crackdown and launch a counter-offensive against the emerging jihad
by Bangla taliban.
But Begum Zia's Government has done
precious little to either reassert authority at home or reassure the world
that it is committed to the global fight against jihadi terror. On
the contrary, by moving into denial mode and seeking to deflect mounting
domestic anger by resorting to the BNP's old trick of castigating India,
she has only emboldened those who have never been at peace with the very
idea of a republican, secular Bangladesh. As Bangladesh gets increasingly
sucked into a vortex of religious bigotry, the present regime in
Dhaka can be expected to further increase the decibel of its anti-India
rhetoric.
The BNP-Jamaat coalition obviously
finds such rhetoric an easy substitute for inaction and worse in
combating Bangladesh's home-grown, foreign influenced terror. Dhaka University
has all but suspended classes after receiving threats to blow up this historic
institution. In Sylhet, the perpetrators of this gory violence in the guise
of Islamising Bangladeshi society, culture and politics, have threatened
to blow up Osmani International Airport. English medium schools in Dhaka's
fashionable Dhanmondi area are under a state of siege. Media is being threatened
for daring to criticise official apathy.
Condemnation of the attempt to assassinate
Sheikh Hasina Wajed, of course, has been swift: US, UK and the EU
have not minced words in conveying their displeasure and serious
concern. But then again, it has taken the bloody events of August 21 to
wake up the world to the reality of militant political Islam in Bangladesh.
Earlier, concerns voiced by India
over the last couple of years had fallen on deaf ears and few governments
across the world, whose aid is Bangladesh's lifeline, had bothered
to reprimand Dhaka. In fact, their indifference matched Bangladeshi belligerence
in the face of evidence produced by India.
That indifference is now yielding
ground to more than mere concern. The US Administration has unequivocally
and bluntly told the Bangladeshi Government that it is in breach
of implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1373, that Bangladesh
is fast turning into a haven and hub for Al Qaeda affiliates in South
Asia, and, that the mounting evidence of jehadi activity from Sylhet to
Jessore flies in the face of official denial.
US State Department counter-terrorism
co-ordinator Joseph Cofer Black, who flew down to Dhaka, found little
cause for niceties while condemning the August 21 "act of political terrorism"
and pressing the FBI into action in cracking the mystery - closely
held by the BNP-Jamaat ruling coalition - behind the violence that has
taken a heavy toll on both human life and Bangladesh's cultural identity
as well as nascent democratic political process.
American involvement, such as it
is, can at best have a momentary impact, more so if Dhaka insists
on treading the treacherous path that has, in recent times, taken many
a Muslim majority country to social ruination and global isolation.
Begum Zia must act, and act decisively now. This is not the voice
of Indian hegemony, but that of the respected Dhaka newspaper, The
Daily Star, whose pithy comment cannot be overstressed: "US involvement
is not a silver bullet in the final analysis, the responsibility for making
the country safe from terror must lie solely with the Government."
