Western Resistance

The wake-up call for Bangladesh's government came on Wednesday August 17th, when a series of 400 bombs simultaneously exploded across the country, with incidents in 63 of the country's 64 districts, killing two and injuring at least 100 others. The organisational pattern of the explosions, which have been blamed upon the banned Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Bangla Bhai, shocked the nation.

The coalition is comprised mainly of the Bangladesh National Party, the BNP, and its junior partner, Jamaat-e-Islami (The Islamic Party), and together they have presided over the country's descent into its current condition since 2001. The situation worsened on October 3, when courthouses were bombed in three locations,Chandpur, Laxmipur and Chittagong city, by Islamists who appeared to be preventing the trials of the some 400 people who were detained following the August 17 explosions. Two people were killed in the courthouse bombings, and fifteen injured, including a judge. Letters were found at the time, threatening judges that they should obey Sharia law, and not the country's laws. The judiciary was put into a state of fear after the attacks.

On Saturday, October 1, prior to the couthouse bombings, police had arrested Mufti Abdul Hannan, the leader of Harkatul Jihad, the group only recently banned by the government. Harkatul Jihad is only the fourth Islamist group to be proscribed by the government. Hannan started to make claims that senior members of the government were his supporters. Similar notions had been expressed before.

The threats against judges continued. On 6 October, a militant, Ghalib (aka Shamin Hossain) who had arranged court bombings in Chandpur and Luxmipur, was arrested. Yet on 9 October, a judge at Munshiganj District and Sessions Court, Judge M Ali Mansur, received a death threat in a letter, claiming to be from Bangla Bhai and Jamaatul Mujahideen. The letter called for the instatement of Sharia law. On the morning of Sunday, 16 October, an object resembling a time-bomb was discovered in the courtyard of the Gopalganj District and Sessions Judge's personal residence. There were no explosives in the device . Police claimed the object had been lobbed into the judge's yard to "create panic". At the same time, two bombs were discovered in the toilet of Pirojopur Government Technical School and College, and the night before, molotov cocktails had caused injuries at Mothura Duakha village.

On the night of Friday. October 14, a live bomb was found in the toilet of a mosque in Rajshahi city. Strangely, a letter near the scene said "Help arrest JMB chief Abdul Rahman - JMB".

The government decided, at the start of Ramadan, to distance itself from the extreme Islamists. On October 6, at a meeting with Islamic scholars and thinkers (alems and olamas), Prime Minister Zia publicly condemned the Islamists in her country, and claimed they would not be spared. But the tactics of Zia's party have been often to publicly present an image of unity and command, concealing uglier parts under a veneer. An example of the ugliness came out a week ago, on Wednesday, October 12, when BNP Member of Parliament, Zahiruddin Swapan, publicly called for journalists to be beaten up, while addressing a meeting in Agailjhara. Swapan is the information and research secretary of the Bangladesh National Party.

We discussed earlier the problems facing the country, and the ineffectual control the coalition government has upon the country nor its allies. The junior partner in the coalition, Jamaat-e-Islami, even claimed the August 17 bombs were carried out by the opposition Awami League. The coalition has wooed Islamic leaders and encouraged Islam without limiting the most extreme followers of the religion. When things get tough, "crackdowns" are implemented. At a recent meeting of Awami League members, the chairman, Zillur Rahman called for the immediate resignation of the prime minister and stated: "Law and order has collapsed, and the alliance government has no moral right to cling to power anymore."

It appears he is right.