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August 17, 2006

Bangladesh: Anniversary Of Serial Bombing - Islamic Party Accused

Today is the anniversary of a serial bomb attack upon Bangladesh, which drew civilians and government members out of their complacency. On Wednesday August 17 2005, a series of bombs went off in 63 of the nation's 64 districts. More than 450 bombs were detonated, and two people, a man and a boy were killed. More than 200 people were injured. At the scene of each blast, there were leaflets, demanding that the judiciary in Bangladesh should adopt sharia law, or face further attacks.

The bombings were the handiwork of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and their affiliate group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (vigilant Muslim citizens of Bangladesh). The demands to institute sharia were ignored, and there followed bomb attacks upon courthouses in Chandpur, Dhaka and Chittagong on October 3, killing 2 people and injuring 15 more.

Threats were made against police stations, jails and individual judges, and after Ramadan ended on November 4, the attacks became more freocious. No longer were simple IED bombs used, and suicide bombers started to operate. The first of these happened on November 14, when two judges in Jhalakathi were killed by a bomb thrown by a young man who subsequently tried to blow himself up.

Then on November 29 there were twin suicide attacks upon courts in Chittagong and Gazipur, killing more that 10 people and severely injuring 21. One of the suicide bombers, despite blowing off both his legs and his hands, survived for a few days. In his pockets he bore a note saying "We will continue our Jihadi mission until establishing an Islamic welfare state."

His information revealed the extent of JMB and JMJB's involvement in the August 17 attacks, and how they were basing their operations in mosques in Tangail district, central Bangladesh.

On december 1 there was another courthouse bombing, again at Gazipur, 80 miles southeast of Dhaka, killing two and injuring more than twenty.

Eventually, the leader of JMB, Abdur Rahman (right in the picture at top) was arrested on March 2. Bangla Bhai (left in picture above, with black beard), a senior member of JMB and the head of JMJB, was arrested on Maych 6, even though he tried to blow himself up.

Eventually, on May 29, Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and three other leaders of JMB were sentenced to death for organising the bombings of the two Jhalakathi judges on November 14.

While in custody, Abdur Rahman had made strong hints that his group had been assisted by senior members of the government, though his interrogators would not allow the names of these sponsors to be revealed. Rahman had hinted that government members had also helped to organise the co-ordinated serial bombings of August 17, 2005.

There are four parties in the coalition government. The largest of these is the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia. There is another party, the Jatiya or Ershad party, which is led by Ershad, a former dictator of Bangladesh. The two other parties in the coalition government are Islami Oikya Jote and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which we discussed recently.

There have been accusations that political parties have been involved in the August 17 national bombing campaign. Only a day after the attacks, the South Asia Analysis Group reported that the Jamaat-e-Islami was making accusations against the main opposition party, the secular Awami League, led by Hasina Wazed. It was said:

" leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a coalition partner of the ruling BNP, have also blamed Awami League for these blasts. Jamaat leaders at a rally in Dhaka alleged that the Awami League conducted the unprecedented blasts as part of a blue print to make the country politically unstable.

Though the intelligence and law enforcing agencies failed in their job, they also obliquely referred to the Awami League for being responsible for the bomb blasts.

The accusations continued. In December, the Awami League accused the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jote of being linked to militants.

On December 6, we reported that Mufti Fazlul Huq Aminee, the chairman of Islami Oikya Jote then counter-claimed, saying that the Awami League had been behind the AUgust 17 blasts, even though Sheikh Hasina and her party had been victims of bomb attacks by JMB since 2004.

On January 3 this year, the Islami Oikya Jote party accused the government of hiding information about the bombers. It implied that the government was protecting the Jamaat-e-Islami. In a press release by IOJ said: "The government is not letting the nation know about the activities of JMB cadres just to protect Jamaat."

When we discussed the Jamaat-e-Islami and its links with the terrorists, we said that a report from the Daily Star of April 28 this year said that all the seven members of JMB's ruling council had links to Jamaat-e-Islami and its violent student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Jamaat-e-Islami had fought to prevent Bangladesh splitting away from Pakistan in the war for independence, which was won in 1971. The movement has always affirmed, like its counterpart in Pakistan, that it wants to establish an Islamist state in Bangladesh, even though it pretends to be part of the democracy.

The Islami Oikya Jote is not much better. This group is behind most of the persecutions of the Muslim sect known as the Ahmadiyya, or Ahmadi. The IOJ has also openly stated its support for the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Islami Oikya Jote wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, but they are neither as established nor as large as Jamaat-e-Islami.

That there are links between the government and Islamists is almost certain. We reported on October 5 that the leader of another Islamist terror group had been arrested. Mufti Abdul Hannan was the leader of Harkatul Jihad.

He threatened that he had links in government, and vowed that he would name their names. That never hapened. His group had been active for years, but was only made illegal by the government on October 17.

On May 3 we reported that Khaleda Zia, the prime minister, told the parliament that the names of the Islamists' patrons were not known, but it is doubtful if she was telling the truth. ""It is yet to be confirmed whether any international group is involved in it, as the probe is still going on," she said, adding that when names were known the "whole world" would know.

On April 18, a leading member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party who had been arrested confessed to RAB (Rapid Action Battalion, the paramilitary security service) that he had links with JMB members, and had entertained them in his home.

Over the past days, the Daily Star has been gloomy about the anniversary today of the August 17 blasts, and bemoaning the fact that there has not been information forthcoming about the patrons of JMB, nor of the foreign sponsors. We know already from confessions made by one of the JMB's council members, Ataur Rahman Sunny (brother of Abdur Rahman) that funds had come from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Sudan and some other Middle Eastern countries and some Islamic NGOs.

We already know that a Kuwait-based group called the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS), has been active in Bangladesh. A report from India Monitor claims that RIHS had bankrolled the attacks upon Bangladesh on August 17, with the assistance of Dr Muhammad Asadullah Al Ghalib.

Ghalib is leader of a group calling itself AHAB (Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh). His group had been responsible for building 25 mosques with RIHS money in the upazila of Shakhipur in Tangail district.

Before he died from his injuries, the Chittagong courthouse suicide bomber, Hossain Ali, confessed that many of JMB's activities and plans of actions had been planned at the at the Shakhipur Mosque, one of the AHAB/RIHS-funded mosques.

RIHS is a US designated terrorist entity, being placed on an exclusion list on January 9, 2002. Yet despite this, only days before the double suicide bombings at Chittagong and Gazipur courthouses, the government had approved of a massive donation to RIHS, to build mosques and madrassas.

The Star wrote: "Although investigators unearthed as startling information as the JMB's plan to attack army personnel and overthrow the government, they have done little to identify the political patrons and foreign links of the militants who banged to limelight by blasting near simultaneous 500 bombs across the country a year ago today."

They wrote more today on this subject, and quoted State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar. He said: "But there is great success. We're continuing our campaign against them and dedicated teams are working towards it. I think this should be continued even if the government changes." Babar refers to the elections which will be held at the start of next year.

But Babar had been deliberately obtuse about JMB in the past. As late as January last year, he was even doubting the existence of JMB. According to Asia Times, he had said on January 26, 2005: "We don't know officially about the existence of the JMB. Only some so-called newspapers are publishing reports on it. We don't have their constitution in our record."

At that time, the Awami League had been well aware of JMB, as they had been victims of its bomb attacks. A report by the Awami League had said that at least 34 bomb blasts between 1999 and February 2005 had taken place, in which 164 persons were killed and 1,735 people injured.

And today, according to the Bangladesh New Age, the Islami Oikya Jote party has made an announcement. The head of IOJ, Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury, said: "The Jamaat-e-Islami was connected with the countrywide serial bomb blasts."

Chowdhury said that on September 18, his party would produce a 600 page document, detailing the links of the Jamaat-e-Islami party with the serial bombings of August 17, 2005. Masudur Rahman Bikrampuri, president of Dhaka Mahanagar Committee of the Islami Oikya Jote, led a meeting at the auditorium of the Photo Journalist Association of Bangladesh.

Chowdhury said that till today the government could not arrest the godfathers connected with the bomb blasts, and claimed the Jamaat-e-Islami had taken up arms against the constitution and the people of the country to take revenge of their defeat in 1971.

And in other news today, on the actual anniversary of the August 17 attacks, with the names of patrons and funders still officially withheld from the public, there was a sad piece of news. The poet Shamsur Rahman (pictured right) died at 6.30 pm local time.

Hugely popular in his country, the 77 year old poet had been slipping away for some time. A tribute can be found here. But despite his huge popularity and the respect he was held in, poets such as Rahman and other authors have been targets of Islamists.

On January 18, 1999, Shamsur Rahman became one of the first well-known victims of Harkatul Jihad. Three Ismaists from the terror group, armed with pick-axes, broke into Shamsur Rahman's apartment. The poet and his wife survived, though his wife was struck with an axe and received serious wounds.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at August 17, 2006 10:44 PM

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