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May 3, 2006

Bangladesh: PM Says Names Of Islamist Patrons Not Known

A report today from the Bangladesh Daily Star states that the Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia (pictured), has said that the names of the sponsors of the Islamist terror groups in her country are not known.

She said today in parliament: "It is yet to be confirmed whether any international group is involved in it, as the probe is still going on." She also claimed that as soon as any information is known, the "whole world" would know about it.

Her claims are not to be believed. She told a member of the Jatiya party, one of the four parties in the coalition government, that following the arrests of the leaders of the governing council of JMB, the country is now free of terrorism. Any additional terrorists had all fled to India, she said, in a reply to a MP from her own party, the Bangladesh National Party. She said she had informed the Indian authorities of these terrorists' names, and the Indian government had promised to take action against them.

But behind her posturing, some worrying questions remain. The main opposition party, the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, and its 14 party alliance, have insisted on refusing to sit on talks aimed at resoring peace or more recently on electoral reform, while another member of the coalition government, the Jamaat-e-Islami had seats at these talks. The Awami League accuse this party of support for the Islamist terror group, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). They also argue that during the battle for Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971, this party killed hundreds of Bangladeshis.

On April 18, a leading member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mohammed Abdul Majid, was arrested. He confessed to having had links with JMB. Majid had hosted several JMB regional meetings in his home and in his bookstall.

The Daily Star reported on April 28 that all seven members of the Majlish-e-Shura of JMB had links with either the Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, the Islami Chhatra Shibir.

After the leader of JMB, Abdur Rahman, was arrested in Sylhet on March 2, he was subjected to intense interrogation by security officers. On March 9, Bangladesh's New Nation reported that Rahman had told his interrogators that some leaders of political parties had encouraged him in his terrorist activities under the banner of JMB.

The names of these politicians still need to be made public, though there is enough circumstantial evidence that some of these politicians belong to Khaleda Zia's own party, the BNP. The sources of JMB's funding are now an issue which need to be answered clearly. The Bangladesh Independent from March 10 reported that Rahman had claimed that the explosives which were used in JMB's attacks had been brought in from India.

One of the major banks in Bangladesh, the Islami Bank Bangladesh, was reported in March to have made money transfers on behalf of JMB militants. This bank has 150 branches across the country. Two other banks were found by an investigation to have made irregular transfers of money. The Gazipur and Savar Islami Bank claimed that these transfers of money were made "by clerical mistake" but the report by the central Bangladesh Bank questioned how such mistakes came to be made so regularly.

Forbes.com, Pakistan's Daily Times and Reuters reported that the Islami Bank's suspicious transactions took place at its Sylhet branch, in the district where Abdur Rahman made his hideout before his arrest. The report stated: "The transactions violated the anti-money laundering guidelines of the central bank and therefore we asked the bank to explain within 10 days why it failed to abide by banking norms."

The Islami Bank Bangladesh was finally given a fine in April, but the amount was paltry - only 100,000 taka ($1,488 US). The central Bangladesh Bank also demanded to know what action the Islami Bank had taken against the 20 officials who had been found guilty of assisting the Islamist militants.

But despite the suspicions of how money was laundered, the actual source of these funds remain unanswered. One member of the JMB's Shura, the younger brother of Abdur Rahman, had been arrested on December 14. Ataur Rahman Sunny confessed to his interrogators that funds had come from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Sudan and some other Middle Eastern countries and some Islamic NGOs.

On March 28, the Daily Star reported that one group, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, was still active in Bangladesh. This group is the Kuwait-based Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS). This organisation specialises in funding operations aimed at destabilising governments to allow Islamists to flourish and take over. They operate under the cover of various charities. In Bangladesh, they fund mosques, and also charities for kidney dialysis.

The RIHS Bangladesh chief, Abdul Aziz Mal-ullah, arrived in Dhaka, the capital, on August 14 last year. He left the country on August 21. While Mal-Ullah was in the country, JMB and JMJB (Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh) launched a nationwide campaign of bombings across the country on August 17. More than 400 bombs were set off in 63 out of the country's 64 districts. These killed two people and injured more than 100. At the scene of each blast, leaflets were left, demanding that the country give itself over to Sharia law.

RIHS has been on a US exclusion list since January 9, 2002. But some of the 25 mosques and madrassas which were built with RIHS money in Shakhipur upazila, Tangail district, were utilised specifically by JMB and its chief, Abdur Rahman, to plot bomb attacks. India Monitor claimed that the RIHS had planned and funded the August 17 bomb attacks, with the complicity of JMB, and also Dr Muhammad Asadullah Al Ghalib, who was arrested on February 23, 2005.

Ghalib was leader of a political movement, the Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh, which campaigned to have these mosques built. He was charged with two murders and bomb charges.

Amazingly, the Bangladesh government approved a massive donation to RIHS, just days before a JMB double suicide attack on courthouses in Chittagong and Gazipur. Not surprisingly, the money went through the Islami Bank, which claimed at the time that the money was to be used to fund mosques and madrassas.

The government of Khaleda Zia is corrupt beyond reason. Last year, it was, for the fourth year running, top of a list of corrupt nations. Despite the evidence of bombing attacks by JMB going back several years, particularly with attacks aimed at the opposition Awami League, the government of Prime Minister Zia repeatedly denied the group's existence. As recently as January 26, 2005, her Interior Minister, Lutfozzaman Babar, denied the existence of JMJB. It was only in February that her government officially banned JMB and JMJB.

Another Islamist terror group, Harkatul Jihad Al Islami was only banned in October 17 last year, after a decade of being in existence. It leader, Mufti Abdul Hannan, had been arrested on Saturday October 1, 2005. He too claimed to have links with members of the parties in the coalition government.

At the end of March, it was reported that Abdul Aziz Mal-Ullah, the head of RIHS, was back in Dhaka, the capital. Intelligence services were watching his activites.

It is perhaps not surprising that yesterday, New Kerala and Daily India report that a newly published book claims that Bangladesh is a new centre of Islamic extremism. In Global Jihad: Current Patterns and Future Trends, journalist Rajeev Sharma makes the statement: "Bangladesh, under the present regime, is fast becoming the new epicentre for Islamic terrorism. This network is real, and partisan diplomacy and selective anti-terrorism warfare will only let loose this Frankenstein."

While Khaleda Zia rules the country with platitudes and lies, condemning terrorist violence while the Jubo Dal, the youth wing of her party do drug deals and physically assault and threaten journalists, one cannot believe her statements.

The Majlish-e-Shura of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh may have been captured, but its followers remain. The funders of terrorism are allowed to operate with impunity. Her coalition partners encourage violence. The Islami Oikya Jote actively campaigns against the Ahmadiyya sect, often with violence. The leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Motiur Rahman Nizami killed Hindus and intellectuals during the war for independence.

Both the Islami Oikya Jote and the Jamaat-e-Islami have been accused of links with the JMB. Both these parties espouse an extreme version of Islam, which ultimately would see the entire country forgetting its pledges to democracy and women's rights, and adopting Sharia law. In essence, their aims are exactly the same as JMB and JMJB.

With government parties such as these, who needs terrorists?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 3, 2006 10:29 PM

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